"55 Cancri e, the first time the atmosphere of a super-Earth exoplanet was analyzed successfully. In August 2016, astronomers announce the detection of ""Proxima b"", an Earth-sized exoplanet that is in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Due to its closeness to Earth, ""Proxima b"" may be a flyby destination for a fleet of interstellar ""StarChip"" spacecrafts currently being developed by the Breakthrough Starshot project. In February 2018, K2-141b, a rocky ultra-short period planet (USP) Super-Earth, with a period of 0.28 days orbiting the host star K2-141 (EPIC 246393474) was"
"in the WGSN's second bulletin issued in October 2016. The next additions were done on 1 February, 30 June, 5 September and 19 November 2017, and on 6 June 2018. All are included on the current List of IAU-approved Star Names, last updated on 1 June 2018. The star nearest to Earth is typically referred to simply as ""the Sun"" or its equivalent in the language being used (for instance, if two astronomers were speaking French, they would call it ""le Soleil""). However, it is sometimes called by its Latin name, Sol, in science fiction. With the advent of the"
"Proxima Centauri Proxima Centauri (), or Alpha Centauri C, is a red dwarf, a small low-mass star, about from the Sun in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With a quiescent apparent magnitude of 11.13, it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye. Proxima Centauri forms a third component of the Alpha Centauri system, currently with a separation of about and an orbital period of 550,000 years. At present Proxima is 2.18° to the southwest of Alpha Centauri. Because of Proxima Centauri's proximity"
"constellation Cassiopeia, similar to that of Achernar from Earth. Proxima Centauri Proxima Centauri (), or Alpha Centauri C, is a red dwarf, a small low-mass star, about from the Sun in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With a quiescent apparent magnitude of 11.13, it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye. Proxima Centauri forms a third component of the Alpha Centauri system, currently with a separation of about and an orbital period of 550,000 years. At present Proxima is 2.18° to the"
"Proxima Centauri b Proxima Centauri b (also called Proxima b or Alpha Centauri Cb) is an exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to the Sun and part of a triple star system. It is located about 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs, 40 trillion km, or 25 trillion miles) from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, making it the closest known exoplanet to the Solar System. Proxima Centauri b orbits the star at a distance of roughly with an orbital period of approximately 11.2 Earth days, and has an estimated"
"Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri (α Centauri, abbreviated Alpha Cen or α Cen) is the closest star system to the Solar System at from the Sun. It is a triple star system, consisting of three stars: Alpha Centauri A (officially Rigil Kentaurus), Alpha Centauri B (officially Toliman), and Alpha Centauri C (officially Proxima Centauri). Alpha Centauri A and B are Sun-like stars (Class G and K), and together they form the binary star Alpha Centauri AB. To the naked eye, the two main components appear as a single star with an apparent magnitude of −0.27, forming the brightest point of light"
"that between Saturn and the Sun (11.2 AU). Alpha Centauri C, or Proxima Centauri, is a small and faint red dwarf (Class M). Though not visible to the naked eye, Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun at a distance of , being slightly closer than Alpha Centauri AB at a distance of . Currently, the distance between Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri AB is about , equivalent to about 430 times the radius of Neptune's orbit. Proxima Centauri b is an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri; it was discovered in 2016. ""α Centauri"""
"its nuclear fuel. As an O-class main sequence star, it would be 8 times the solar radius and 62,000 times the Sun's luminosity. Star A star is type of astronomical object consisting of a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye from Earth during the night, appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky due to their immense distance from Earth. Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, the brightest of which gained"
"Kapteyn's Star Kapteyn's Star is a class M1 red subdwarf about 12.76 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Pictor; it is the closest halo star to the Solar System. With a magnitude of nearly 9 it is visible through binoculars or a telescope. Its diameter is 30% of the Sun's, but its luminosity just 1.2% that of the Sun's. It may have once been part of the globular cluster Omega Centauri, itself a likely dwarf galaxy swallowed up by the Milky Way in the distant past. The discovery of two planets — Kapteyn b and Kapteyn c —"
"to the naked eye. Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is a red dwarf (Type M5, apparent magnitude 11.05), as are fifty of the sixty nearest stars. According to some estimates, red dwarfs make up three-quarters of the stars in the Milky Way. Stellar models indicate that red dwarfs less than are fully convective. Hence the helium produced by the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen is constantly remixed throughout the star, avoiding helium buildup at the core, thereby prolonging the period of fusion. Red dwarfs therefore develop very slowly, maintaining a constant luminosity and spectral type for trillions of"
"to play a role in the star's ability to produce such bright flares. After the flare, the star was blue. EV Lacertae EV Lacertae (EV Lac, Gliese 873, HIP 112460) is a faint red dwarf star 16.5 light years away in the constellation Lacerta. It is the nearest star to the Sun in that region of the sky, although with an apparent magnitude of 10, it is only barely visible with binoculars. EV Lacertae is spectral type M3.5 flare star that emits X-rays. On 25 April 2008, NASA's ""Swift"" satellite picked up a record-setting flare from EV Lacertae. This flare"
"Gamma Crucis Gamma Crucis (γ Crucis, abbreviated Gamma Cru, γ Cru), also named Gacrux, is the nearest class M giant star to the Sun. The distance to Gacrux has been determined using parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, which yielded a value of away from the Sun. With an apparent visual magnitude of +1.63, this is the third-brightest star in the southern constellation of Crux, the Southern Cross, and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. A line from the two ""Pointers"", Alpha Centauri through Beta Centauri, leads to within a few degrees of this star. ""γ"
"EV Lacertae EV Lacertae (EV Lac, Gliese 873, HIP 112460) is a faint red dwarf star 16.5 light years away in the constellation Lacerta. It is the nearest star to the Sun in that region of the sky, although with an apparent magnitude of 10, it is only barely visible with binoculars. EV Lacertae is spectral type M3.5 flare star that emits X-rays. On 25 April 2008, NASA's ""Swift"" satellite picked up a record-setting flare from EV Lacertae. This flare was thousands of times more powerful than the largest observed solar flare. Because EV Lacertae is much farther from Earth"
"the closest star to Earth after the Sun, is around 4.2 light-years away. Radar systems measure the distance to a target by the time it takes a radio-wave pulse to return to the radar antenna after being reflected by the target: the distance to the target is half the round-trip transit time multiplied by the speed of light. A Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver measures its distance to GPS satellites based on how long it takes for a radio signal to arrive from each satellite, and from these distances calculates the receiver's position. Because light travels about () in one"
"branch, and started helium fusion in its core. τ Sagittarii is the closest constellational star (a star that is part of the traditional outline of a constellation) to the origin of the 1977 Wow! signal. \end{align}</math></ref> Tau Sagittarii Tau Sagittarii (Tau Sgr, τ Sagittarii, τ Sgr) is a star in the southern zodiac constellation of Sagittarius. With an apparent visual magnitude of +3.3, this is one of the brighter members of the constellation. The distance of this star from Earth is roughly , based upon parallax measurements. This is a spectral type K1 giant star with about . The stellar"
"Star A star is type of astronomical object consisting of a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye from Earth during the night, appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky due to their immense distance from Earth. Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, the brightest of which gained proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. However, most of the stars in"
"Apart from being the closest star-system to Earth's, (4.1 light-years northwest of earth) Alpha Centauri is home to both a local planning department office of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council and a race of small furry creatures (who, during the times of the Galactic Empire, ""were ""real"" small furry creatures""). Its main spaceport, Port Brasta, has a massive duty-free shopping mall, the motto of which is, ""be like the twenty-second elephant with heated value in space – bark!"" This slogan contains an ingenious pun in Centaurian that the natives find hilarious. Alpha Proxima is the smallest (and closest to Earth)"
"the Sun. Wolf 359 Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. At a distance of approximately 7.9 light years from Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 13.54 and can only be seen with a large telescope. Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the Sun; only the Alpha Centauri system (including Proxima Centauri), Barnard's Star and the brown dwarfs Luhman 16 and WISE 0855−0714 are known to be closer. Its proximity to Earth has led to its mention in several works of fiction. Wolf 359 is one of the"
"CH Cygni CH Cygni (CH Cyg / HIP 95413 / BD +49 2999) is a red giant, variable, symbiotic binary in the constellation Cygnus. It is the nearest symbiotic star to Earth, and one of the brightest, making it an ideal candidate for study. CH Cygni has a mass of and a radius of . Its white-dwarf companion has a mass of , and the orbital period of the two stars is 5689 days. CH Cygni is classified as M7IIIab + Be. The earliest observations of CH Cygni were made in 1890 by Pickering and Wendel using wedge photometer, and"
"Aug 2016. The Ross stars in this list (but not all stars in the Ross catalog) are red dwarfs, and they are among the closest stars to the Solar System. They were catalogued beginning in 1926 by the American astronomer Frank Elmore Ross, and some of them are still widely known by the catalog number he gave them (for one that is not, see Ross 780). The stars listed below, despite their faint magnitudes (all numerically greater than 10), have attracted the attention of authors and game developers interested in fiction depicting the earliest stages of humanity's expansion into the"
"Wolf 359 Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. At a distance of approximately 7.9 light years from Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 13.54 and can only be seen with a large telescope. Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the Sun; only the Alpha Centauri system (including Proxima Centauri), Barnard's Star and the brown dwarfs Luhman 16 and WISE 0855−0714 are known to be closer. Its proximity to Earth has led to its mention in several works of fiction. Wolf 359 is one of the faintest and"
"had a close encounter with the Solar System. Some ago, it achieved a minimum distance of . GJ 3379 GJ 3379 (Giclas 99-49) is the nearest star in the Orion constellation, being around 17.5 lightyears away from the Sun. The main sequence star is a red dwarf with the spectral class M3.5V. It has an apparent magnitude of 11.33 and an absolute magnitude of 12.68, therefore, the star is not visible with the naked eye. It is located in the left upper part of the Orion constellation, below Betelgeuse. Its radial velocity is +30.0 kilometers per second. According to the"
"TW Hydrae TW Hydrae is a T Tauri star approximately 196 light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (the Sea Serpent). The star is the closest such star to the Solar System. TW Hydrae is about 80% of the mass of the Sun, but is only about 5-10 million years old. The star appears to be accreting from a face-on protoplanetary disk of dust and gas, which has been resolved in images from the ALMA observatory. TW Hydrae is accompanied by about twenty other low-mass stars with similar ages and spatial motions, comprising the ""TW Hydrae association"" or TWA, one"
"a concurrent helium flash. This dust had dissipated by 2002, with subsequent luminosities returning to pre-1985 levels. CH Cygni CH Cygni (CH Cyg / HIP 95413 / BD +49 2999) is a red giant, variable, symbiotic binary in the constellation Cygnus. It is the nearest symbiotic star to Earth, and one of the brightest, making it an ideal candidate for study. CH Cygni has a mass of and a radius of . Its white-dwarf companion has a mass of , and the orbital period of the two stars is 5689 days. CH Cygni is classified as M7IIIab + Be. The"
"Cetus. It is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 2.0, 96 light-years from Earth. The traditional name ""Deneb Kaitos"" means ""the whale's tail"". γ Ceti, Kaffaljidhma (""head of the whale"") is a very close double star. The primary is a yellow-hued star of magnitude 3.5, 82 light-years from Earth, and the secondary is a blue-hued star of magnitude 6.6. Tau Ceti is noted for being the nearest Sun-like star at a distance of 11.9 light-years. It is a yellow-hued main-sequence star of magnitude 3.5. AA Ceti is a triple star system; the brightest member has a magnitude of 6.2. The"
"about 4.4 light-years away. Alpha Centauri A and B are a closely tied pair of Sun-like stars, whereas the small red dwarf, Proxima Centauri, orbits the pair at a distance of 0.2 light-year. In 2016, a potentially habitable exoplanet was confirmed to be orbiting Proxima Centauri, called Proxima Centauri b, the closest confirmed exoplanet to the Sun. The stars next closest to the Sun are the red dwarfs Barnard's Star (at 5.9 ly), Wolf 359 (7.8 ly), and Lalande 21185 (8.3 ly). The largest nearby star is Sirius, a bright main-sequence star roughly 8.6 light-years away and roughly twice the"
"Omicron Draconis Omicron Draconis (Latinised as ο Draconis, abbreviated to ο Dra) is a giant star in the constellation Draco located 322.93 light years from the Earth. It has a radius of 30 solar radii, and a luminosity of 269 suns. Its path in the night sky is circumpolar above the ecliptic, meaning the star never rises or sets when viewed in the night sky from certain positions in the northern hemisphere. Omicron Draconis can be considered the north pole star of Mercury, as it is the closest star to Mercury's north celestial pole. This is a single-lined spectroscopic binary"
"the brightest globular cluster as visible from Earth and one of the largest known. Centaurus contains several very bright stars. Its alpha and beta stars are used as ""pointer stars"" to help observers find the constellation Crux. Centaurus has 281 stars above magnitude 6.5, meaning that they are visible to the unaided eye, the most of any constellation. Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to the Sun, has a high proper motion; it will be a mere half-degree from Beta Centauri in approximately 4000 years. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system that contains Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to"
"Zealander Mary Williams. Aquarius Stream The Aquarius Stream is a stellar stream located in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is so named because most of the stars in the stream lie in the direction of the Aquarius constellation. At its nearest point it is about 2000 light years from Earth; at its farthest it is about 30,000 light years away. It is the closest stellar stream to Earth yet found, and the youngest, having formed about 700 million years ago. The stream was discovered in late 2010 by a team of astronomers involved in the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey"
"and direction to those of Alpha Centauri AB, suggesting that Proxima Centauri is part of the Alpha Centauri system and slightly closer to Earth than Alpha Centauri AB. Lying away, Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the Sun. All current derived distances for the three stars are from the parallaxes obtained from the Hipparcos star catalogue (HIP) and the Hubble Space Telescope. All components of Alpha Centauri display significant proper motion against the background sky. Over centuries, this causes their apparent positions to slowly change. Proper motion was unknown to ancient astronomers. Most assumed that the stars are immortal"
"Aldebaran Aldebaran, designated Alpha Tauri (α Tauri, abbreviated Alpha Tau, α Tau), is an orange giant star located about 65 light-years from the Sun in the zodiac constellation Taurus. It is the brightest star in its constellation and usually the fourteenth-brightest star in the night sky, though it varies slowly in brightness between magnitude 0.75 and 0.95. Aldebaran hosts a planet several times the size of Jupiter￼, named Aldebaran b. The planetary exploration probe Pioneer 10 is currently heading in the general direction of the star and should make its closest approach in about two million years. ""Alpha Tauri"" is"
"Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy (), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years) from Earth, and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. Its name stems from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda. The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that the Andromeda Galaxy contains approximately one trillion stars, more than twice the number of the Milky Way's estimated 200 to 400 billion stars. The Andromeda Galaxy's mass is estimated to be around 1.76 times that of the"
"the Solar System and, in about 32,300 years, will be at its minimal distance of about from the Sun. The ChView simulation shows that currently its nearest neighbouring star is Lacaille 9352 at about from EZ Aquarii. EZ Aquarii EZ Aquarii is a triple star system approximately from the Sun in the constellation Aquarius. It is also known as Luyten 789-6 and Gliese 866 and all three components are M-type red dwarfs. The pair EZ Aquarii AC form a spectroscopic binary with a 3.8-day orbit and a 0.03 AU separation. This pair share an orbit with EZ Aquarii B that"