This fact brought to you by quarantine.
As far as I can determine, based on the very limited facts I have found in a star chart book my family got me awhile back (Cardassia’s star is -1.1 in absolute magnitude and has K0V spectral classification) and information on Wikipedia, regarding spectral classification, habitable zones, orbital period equations, and such.
The Cardassian year is likely much longer than an Earth year, and would be between 32.56 and 102.22 Earth years in length, with a greater likelihood of being at or below 40 Earth years in length.
Full explanation below cut:
More research suggested that a 40 Earth-year long orbital period would cause issues with climactic extremes. So if you wanna write Cardassia as having polar tundra at the poles, a scorching equator, and a narrow habitable zone, go right ahead and do so :)
I will probably be using idea of Cardassia having a much shorter axial precession than Earth does (axial precession is part of Milankovitch cycles, which are hypothesized to cause Ice Ages - axial precession has also been floated as idea for why Westeros has weird seasons btw).
In that model, Cardassia would have axial precession numerous times during each orbital period, such that seasons and “years” would depend primarily on the axial precession rather than on orbital period. This would also cause the polar stars on Cardassia to change numerous times per orbital period year. Bc it results in a slightly different but still analogous year, I picked a full axial precession to occur every 502 Cardassian days, which results in 27 precessions per orbital period. I called these “zodiacs”, but will probably invent an analogous Kardasi word. I call them zodiacs, as the Cardassian night sky would likely change more in terms of orientation, but less in terms of progression through different stars visible than the Earth sky, as Cardassia takes longer to complete an orbital period.
Again, if someone is actually well versed on astronomy and not just looking this stuff on wikipedia please chime in!
I’ve actually been meaning to construct a Kardasi Zodiac, so this gives me fascinating insights.
