The Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems (HabCat) is a catalogue of

star system A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars that orbit each other, bound by gravity, gravitational attraction. It may sometimes be used to refer to a single star. A large group of stars bound by gravitation is generally calle ...

s which conceivably have

habitable planet Planetary habitability is the measure of a planet's or a natural satellite's potential to develop and sustain an environment hospitable to life. Life may be generated directly on a planet or satellite endogenously. Research suggests that life ...

s. The list was developed by scientists

Jill Tarter Jill Cornell Tarter (born January 16, 1944) is an American astronomer best known for her work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Tarter is the former director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Ch ...

and Margaret Turnbull under the auspices of Project Phoenix, a part of

SETI Seti or SETI may refer to: Astrobiology * SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ** SETI Institute, an astronomical research organization *** SETIcon, a former convention organized by the SETI Institute ** Berkeley SETI Research Cent ...

. The list was based upon the

Hipparcos Catalogue ''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions and distances of ...

(which has 118,218 stars) by filtering on a wide range of star system features. The current list contains 17,129 "HabStars".

External links

Target Selection for SETI: 1. A Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar Systems
Turnbull, Tarter, submitted 31 Oct 2002 (last accessed 19 Jan 2010)
Target selection for SETI. II. Tycho-2 dwarfs, old open clusters, and the nearest 100 stars
, by Turnbull and Tarter, (last accessed 19 Jan 2010)

- an article on the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

website Astronomical catalogues of stars Search for extraterrestrial intelligence Exoplanet catalogues {{astronomical-catalogue-stub