A star is the body at the centre of a system. Every system has exactly one. A star does not orbit and holds nothing to mine. Ships jumping into a system arrive at its star.
Properties
- Mass sets how fast the bodies around it orbit: a heavier star makes faster orbits. See Glossary.
- Heat sets how warm those bodies are. The warmth a body receives is the star's heat divided by the square root of its distance, reduced by the light its surface reflects. A body moves toward that temperature gradually, so a body on a stretched orbit warms near the star and cools far out. Mass between a body and its star shades it and cools it further; see Shading in the Glossary.
Formation
Worldgen places one star in every system, with planets, fields and moons around it. Its heat sets the frost line: a resource condenses in a body only where the star's light leaves it below the temperature at which it sublimes. A few stars in the outer rings are rare kinds, with masses and heats of their own: a black hole, a neutron star or a nebula.