Nearby Stellar Density

Post date: Mar 10, 2011 10:50:28 PM

These plots show some simple statistics for our stellar neighborhood using the HYG Stellar Database v2.0, which combines stellar data from the Hipparcos Catalog, the Yale Bright Star Catalog (5th Edition), and the Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars. Parameters calculated were the number of stellar systems (Figure 1), stellar systems density (Figure 2), and the mean minimum distance between stellar systems (Figure 3) as function of distance from the Sun. In these calculations only stars closer than 500 AU were considered a single stellar system.

Figure 1. Number of observed stellar systems within 50 parsecs (163 ly).

Figure 2. Density of observed stellar systems within 50 parsecs (163 ly).

Figure 3. Mean minimum distance between observed stellar systems within 50 parsecs (163 ly).