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In the early 1960s, Hal Clement, that master of SF worldbuilding, whipped up an imaginary planetary system for Xi Boötis, which is located about 22 light years from Sol. Unfortunately I’ve never seen a copy of his essay, although I know it was printed as a chapbook. Someday! If I’ve heard correctly, this system included three habitable planets, one similar to Earth and the others more like Venus and Mars as we used to think of them (steaming hot jungle and cold desert, both with breathable atmospheres). I’ve also heard that Clement offered the system gratis as a backdrop to other writers who weren’t as strong on worldbuilding as he was.
Anyway, given what we know now about Xi Boötis, I don’t think it’s a likely prospect for a habitable world. (Not a knock against Clement, who was working with the information we had fifty years ago). It’s only a billion or so years old (the Internet Stellar Database says only 60 million!), so there won’t have been time for life as we know it to form.
Xi Bootis is a binary star, a G8V with a K5V companion. Estimates of the stars’ metallicity vary widely.
Anyway, given what we know now about Xi Boötis, I don’t think it’s a likely prospect for a habitable world. (Not a knock against Clement, who was working with the information we had fifty years ago). It’s only a billion or so years old (the Internet Stellar Database says only 60 million!), so there won’t have been time for life as we know it to form.
Xi Bootis is a binary star, a G8V with a K5V companion. Estimates of the stars’ metallicity vary widely.