I peered at the chart. “Huh. WISE 0855–0714 also infected Wolf 359, Lalande 21185, and Ross 128.” “Yes, every star eventually infects all of its neighbors. Judging from our data, we think Astrophage has a maximum range of just under eight light-years. Any star within that range of an infected star will eventually be infected.” I looked at the data. “Why eight light-years? Why not more? Or less?” “Our best guess is the Astrophage can only survive so long without a star and it can coast about eight light-years in that time.”
