A sun is any star seen from close-by. In particular, a star that has planets (together, a planetary system or just system for short) or other child gravitationally-bound bodies is likely to be called a sun or even The Sun by native or non-native inhabitants of one or more of those planets, if any (though of course such details are dependent on languages used).
Naming[]
Many stars in the human sphere of expansion were named before humans visited any stars beyond their 'first system', and their names often reflect this fact even as it becomes a curiosity of history.
For example, many stars are named by what constellation they are in and their ranking in that system, say by apparent brightness from Earth (often with the use of Greek letters to serve as ordinals). Since constellations are apparent, not strictly spatial groupings of stars, they do not apply outside of an Earth-centric reference frame...yet these names persist. Other stars are named after their placement in catalogs compiled by particular astronomers, or with the use of particular instruments.
List of stars/suns and their systems or subsidaries, if any[]
- Sol -- Solar System
- Delta Pavonis -- Delta Pavonis system
- Lacaille 9352 -- Fand
- Epsilon Eridani -- Epsilon Eridani system
In art and myth[]
Calvin Sylveste observed through his excavation of Amarantin artefacts on Resurgam that the graphic symbol for the Amarantin sun, Epsilon Eridani, was a five-pointed star figure; similar to symbols for Sol that humans had made on Earth. This symbol formed part of the name in the graphic forms of the mythic figure Sun Stealer.