[ Wikipedia on Stars ]

The core of every solar system is its star. You must have a star in your system. A star may be selected from three basic types:

• Main sequence star
• Giant star
• Binary star

At the bottom of the page you can find the Overview.

A Main sequence star is in its main sequence. This is the default type of star. A Giant star is more massive, and actually encompass some of its orbits, resulting in less room for planetary real estate. A Binary star is actually two stars circling close together in the centre of the system. It is twice as bright thus has a higher energy output but it has far fewer stable orbits.

Gas prices per orbit: 2 for , 3 for and 12 for . Main Sequence Stars get 4 free and Giant Stars get 2 free , due to their lower base per orbit.

Main Sequence stars are the most common stars in the galaxy. After a main sequence star has formed, it creates energy at the hot, dense core region through the nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium. They can exist for billions of years before finally becoming giant stars at the end of their life. The exact evolution of the star depends on its mass.

A Main Sequence star is a regular star in the prime of its life. It does not produce as much power as other types of stars, but it has many stable orbits, allowing many planets to form.

Main Sequence stars have 10 planetary orbits, with the orbit temperatures depending on the colour of the star. They produce 60 in Hot Orbits, 50 in Goldilocks orbits and 40 in Cold orbits.

Within a binary pair, the brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star or secondary. The primary star is sometimes indicated by adding an A to the name with a B added to the secondary, but many inhabited systems have different names for each star. If components in binary star systems are close enough they can gravitationally distort their mutual outer stellar atmospheres. In some cases, these close binary systems can exchange mass, which may bring their evolution to stages that single stars cannot attain. Binary stars commonly have planets and are the progenitors of both novae and type Ia supernovae.

A Binary star is actually two stars circling close together in the centre of the system. It is twice as bright thus has a higher energy output but it has far fewer stable orbits.

Binary Stars have 4 planetary orbits in total, with the orbit temperatures depending on the colours of the stars. They produce 90 in Hot Orbits, 70 in Goldilocks orbits and 50 in Cold orbits.

The game rules make no distinction between a primary and secondary star, but leave interpreting this up to the players creativity. As such a Red / Blue Binary Star is identical to a Blue Red Binary Star. However, for brevity sake, we only have a page for one of each pair, sorted by colour temperature from low to hight.

A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main sequence star of the same surface temperature. Stars still more luminous than giants are referred to as supergiants and hypergiants, which have lifetimes numbering in the millions of years - not long enough to form planets. A star becomes a giant star after all the hydrogen available for fusion at its core has been depleted and, as a result, it has left the main sequence. As the star starts to fuse helium, the outer layers of the star expand. Eventually such stars will become white dwarves or, if they are very massive, black holes.

A Giant star is a star with a much larger radius and luminosity than a Main Sequence star. Due to its higher luminosity, it produces more power, but it has fewer stable orbits.

Giant stars have 7 planetary orbits, with the orbit temperatures depending on the colour of the star. They produce 75 in Hot Orbits, 60 in Goldilocks orbits and 45 in Cold orbits.