The Altair system was the site of the New Earth colony from 2134 until it was destroyed in January 2145. The Ceti had once colonized the same world in 1955, but the Ceti settlement disappeared without a trace in 2129. The fate of the original colony may never be solved now that Altair VI has been rendered uninhabitable.
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Altair II orbits its parent star at a distance of 3 AUs.
Credit (Original Art): NASA/ESA/StSCI
Altair is an A-class star similar to Sirius. Its rotation period of approximately 10 hours at its equator stretches the star into an ovoid whose equatorial diameter is 14 percent greater than its polar diameter. At 16.8 light-years from Earth, Altair was the most distant system to which mankind routinely traveled. The Ross 154 Outpost, established in 2131, served as a waypoint for ships en route to Altair, as Terran Trans-D drives couldn't make jumps of more than 12 light-years until 2136.