One of humanity’s great coming-of-age moments was the realization that the Sun is a star, falling somewhat unexceptionally within the range of those we see; made special only by our relationship to it. However, stars are not clones of each other. So do all other stars count as suns? Do any? If only some do, which ones? There are no universally accepted answers, but we can explore.
As with so many things, astronomical categories seemed so easy before we learned more about them. There was THE Sun, THE Moon, five planets, and thousands of stars. We had to make up stories to explain what they were, but it wasn’t hard working out which category something fell into.
What is a sun?
Then things got messy, as anyone bruised by
As we started to learn the scale of the universe and grasp the nature of stars, it became clear that the Sun clearly belongs in that stellar category. It’s not typical exactly – there are far cooler and less massive stars than there are ones of the Sun’s brightness or greater, but if there’s anything truly exceptional about it, we have yet to discover it.
Some people do believe this. Website
However, language changes with usage. The use of “Sun” to describe stars very like our own is now so widespread that those clinging to the belief that the word Sun should be reserved for one star only are the minority. Stars that are reasonably Sun-like are often referred to as other suns. As one example among many, when people refer to a
If you’d prefer the word of authority in a case like this, rather than democracy, consider
Which stars count?
Some stars being suns doesn’t mean they all are.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary
On the other hand, it’s unlikely anyone would call a
In general, however, stars only get referred to as suns if they have at least two characteristics: they’re still fusing elements, releasing heat in the process, and they are orbited by planets.
Just meeting those criteria, however, doesn’t mean everyone will welcome a star into the club.
Stars that have only gas giants orbiting them, rather than planets astronauts might one day stand on, are also less likely to be looked upon as suns. Part of the usage seems to be to imagine aliens or future colonists getting to watch sunrises and sunsets. Starsets just sounds wrong.
Other people would be more restrictive.
It’s up to you
Ultimately, this is a case where people make the rules, and on the assumption that all our readers are people, we say it’s up to you. If you want to consider there to be only one sun, that’s your right. The same if you want to call even white dwarfs suns, but in either case you’d be very much an outlier. Feel free to stand strong in your convictions, but don’t expect many allies. As to whether some modestly Sun-like stars deserve the name – use at your discretion.