Proxima Centauri

nearest star · red dwarf · deep space

Our closest neighbor. Proxima Centauri is only 4.25 light-years from Earth, making it the nearest star to the Sun. Even at that distance, light from it takes over 4 years to reach us.

Too faint to see. Proxima Centauri is so dim that you cannot see it with your bare eyes, even on the darkest night. You need a telescope to spot this tiny, low-mass star.

Found in 1915. An astronomer named Robert Innes discovered Proxima Centauri more than 100 years ago in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Its Latin name simply means 'the nearest star of Centaurus.'

Part of a system. Proxima Centauri belongs to the Alpha Centauri star system and orbits around the Alpha Centauri AB pair. It takes about 550,000 years to complete one full orbit.

Incredibly far away. Despite being the closest star, Proxima Centauri is about 12,950 times farther from Earth than the distance from Earth to the Sun. That shows just how vast space really is.