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Proxima Centauri has an insignificant luminosity to Betelgeuse. Although it is the closest known star(4.2 light-years) to our Sun, it is virtually impossible to see because it is so dim. Betelgeuse, on the other hand, is a lot farther (640 light-years). Yet, it is one of the brightest stars in our night sky. This is because Betelgeuse has an extremely high luminosity.
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How long would it take to travel to the nearest star at 20000 miles per hour?
Incredible as it might sound, even traveling at 20,000 miles per hour the trip to Proxima Centauri (V645 Centauri) would take 142,241 years!
Is the nearest star the proxima centauri?
Not counting the Sun itself, Proxima Centauri can be the nearest star that we know about.Proxima (Alpha Centauri C) is part of the Alpha Centauri system. Depending on where it is in its orbit, it might be closer to us than Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, or it might be further away.Astronomers also aren't absolutely positive that the Sun doesn't have a distant binary red or brown dwarf companion. Such a companion would be difficult for us to detect. This hypothetical companion has even been given a name, just in case we end up finding it: Nemesis.It currently seems unlikely that Nemesis exists. The WISE survey (which could have detected stellar objects with a surface temperature of just 150 Kelvin - far below freezing - at a distance of 10 light years, considerably further away than the Alpha Centauri system) should have found it if it were there. Also, the reason it was originally hypothesized to exist (periodic mass extinctions on Earth, the reason for the name Nemesis) is no longer considered to be consistent with the proposed Nemesis mechanism.So, after all that: Probably yes, at least part of the time.
Distance from earth to nearest non- solar star?
The nearest star outside our solar system is Proxima Centauri, at 4.2 light years. Light travels 186,000 miles per second, so 3600 seconds per hour times 24 hours per day times 365.25 days per year = 31557600 seconds per year. Times 186,000 miles per second times 4.2 light years equals 24,652,797,120,000 miles. To the CLOSEST other star. The bright star Vega is only 25 LY away, so that's about 146,742,840,000,000 miles. Rigel, the brightest of the "nearby" stars, is about 800 LY away, so that's about 4,695,770,880,000,000 miles. In words, that would be 4.6 QUADRILLION miles. The brightest single star that we are aware of is S Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the "daughter" galaxies of our Milky Way. S Doradus is 169,000 LY away, so in miles this would be 991,981,598,400,000,000 miles away. All of the other galaxies are farther away than that, but they are so far away that we generally cannot see individual stars at that distance.
How old is Alpha Centauri compared to the Sun?
The Heliopause is at a distance of appx 120 AU from the Sun. That is around 0.0019 light years. Te Alpha Centauri star system is 4.365 light years away from the Sun, and almost the same distance away from the Heliopause.
How long does it take light to reach earth from Betelgeuse?
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star about 640 light-years from Earth. So light from Betelgeuse takes 640 years to get here. Here's an interesting fact; the star Betelgeuse is probably near the end of its life, and may explode in a supernova explosion any time. Very massive stars like Betelgeuse live fast and die in under 100 million years, and Betelgeuse will probably go supernova within the next 10,000 years. This is like no time at all in cosmic terms, but in terms of a HUMAN lifetime, it probably will NOT happen while we're alive to see it. But it could. In fact, Betelgeuse might have exploded 500 years ago, and we wouldn't know it for another 140 years!
How long would it take to travel to the nearest star at 20000 miles per hour?
Incredible as it might sound, even traveling at 20,000 miles per hour the trip to Proxima Centauri (V645 Centauri) would take 142,241 years!
What star is the closest to us in the milky way?
The Sun is "really" the closest star at 150,000,000 km (93,000,000 miles)Proxima Centauri is the closest star to us, at a distance of approximately 4.2 light years.(Proxima is Latin for "next to" or "nearest to")Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to us at a distance of approximately 4.3 light yearsThe Centauri system is a triple star system Centauri A and B have a mean separation of 11 AU's and are similar in size and temp to the Sun.Centauri C is a red dwarf it can not be seen with the unaided eye and was not discovered until 1918See related link for more information.
What galaxy is Proxima Centauri located?
Alpha Centauri is not a single star but a multiple star system.The two main stars are Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. These orbit each other fairly closely (closely enough that despite them being only a little over four-light years from Earth, they appear as a single star to the naked eye).Considerably further away from the two (but still close, by astronomical standards) is the star known as Proxima Centauri. It's believed to be gravitationally associated with (i.e. orbiting) the AB pair and is also known as Alpha Centauri C. Proxima is far enough from AB that, if it were bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, it would appear as a distinct star (in fact, it's a couple of degrees from AB; about four times the width of the full Moon).Because of its orbit (if it's in orbit, which we don't actually know for sure ... it might just happen by coincidence to be passing close by), Proxima is currently nearer to us than A and B are, hence the name.
Is the nearest star the proxima centauri?
Not counting the Sun itself, Proxima Centauri can be the nearest star that we know about.Proxima (Alpha Centauri C) is part of the Alpha Centauri system. Depending on where it is in its orbit, it might be closer to us than Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, or it might be further away.Astronomers also aren't absolutely positive that the Sun doesn't have a distant binary red or brown dwarf companion. Such a companion would be difficult for us to detect. This hypothetical companion has even been given a name, just in case we end up finding it: Nemesis.It currently seems unlikely that Nemesis exists. The WISE survey (which could have detected stellar objects with a surface temperature of just 150 Kelvin - far below freezing - at a distance of 10 light years, considerably further away than the Alpha Centauri system) should have found it if it were there. Also, the reason it was originally hypothesized to exist (periodic mass extinctions on Earth, the reason for the name Nemesis) is no longer considered to be consistent with the proposed Nemesis mechanism.So, after all that: Probably yes, at least part of the time.
What is the closet star to earth?
Technically speaking, the sun is the closest star to Earth..The next closest known star to the Earth is Proxima Centauri, red dwarf starapproximately 4.2 light years from Earth ... only about 278,000 times as farfrom us as the Sun is. See the related link below for further information aboutProxima Centauri..The next two closest known stars comprise the binary star system called AlphaCentauri. Alpha Centauri is 4.4 light years from Earth..It is postulated that another star, a red or brown dwarf star, closer to the Earththan Proxima Centauri, orbits the sun in a highly elliptical orbit. This possiblestar is code named Nemesis. See the related link below for further informationabout a companion star.That would be the Sun, an average everyday star. The next closest star to earth is Alpha Centauri, which is only four light-years away.
Name 3 nearby stars?
Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to our solar system, but Proxima Centauri is small and dim. For many years, scientists thought that Alpha Centauri was closest. Two other interesting stars are Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, stars very similar to our Sun. Science fiction writers writers often choose Tau Ceti and Epison Eridani not only for their similarity and the hope that similar solar systems might have similar planets, but also because they are quite close to us. Tau Ceti, for example, is less than 12 light-years away, and Epsiol Eridani is just over 10 LY away.
If you could travel at the speed of light how long would it take to travel form our solar system to the nearest star?
The nearest star (besides our sun) is 4.24 light-years from earth. This means that light emitted for this star takes 4.24 years to reach earth. Some stars are over millions of light-years away. The closest star is the sun. Beyond that is Proxima Centauri, at 4.24 light-years away. Alpha Centauri is at 4.37 light-years, and beyond that is Barnard's star at 5.97 light-years away. 4.24 light-years = roughly 24,925,000,000,000 miles (rounded to the nearest billion miles) lol
What might you expect the peak apparent magnitude of the Betelgeuse supernova explosion to be?
Big
How close is the closest nebulae to our solar system?
The nearest supernova, or more correctly supernova remnant is the Vela [See Link]. It occurred around 11 - 12,000 years ago. Not only is it the oldest, but it is also the closest at about 800 light years.
Have we discovered a habitable world orbiting Proxima Centauri?
We don't know that yet. Scientists have indeed found a planet that is in the "just right" Goldilocks zone... about the right size, about the right distance from its star... that might be able to support liquid water, but without further study, we don't know whether it is actually habitable or not. It could be more like Venus or Mars, and not suited to human use. The star (Proxima Centauri) is 4.2 light years away, which is very, very close in terms of the universe. The planet (which is being called Proxima b) is at least 1.3 times the mass of the Earth, and a year on Proxima b is only 11.2 days. Some Scientists are stressing that we shouldn't get our hopes up. There are also significant differences. The planet may be tidally locked, which means that one side of the planet would always be day, and one would always be night. The planet is also much more bombarded with radiation, and without knowing anything about the atmosphere, we have no idea if the planet is shielded from some or all of that, or whether it is just a deathtrap. Still, the possibilities of another habitable planet so close are exciting. A project called Breakthrough Starshot might be able to go out there and get more information in another 20 years, if it all works out.
Distance from earth to nearest non- solar star?
The nearest star outside our solar system is Proxima Centauri, at 4.2 light years. Light travels 186,000 miles per second, so 3600 seconds per hour times 24 hours per day times 365.25 days per year = 31557600 seconds per year. Times 186,000 miles per second times 4.2 light years equals 24,652,797,120,000 miles. To the CLOSEST other star. The bright star Vega is only 25 LY away, so that's about 146,742,840,000,000 miles. Rigel, the brightest of the "nearby" stars, is about 800 LY away, so that's about 4,695,770,880,000,000 miles. In words, that would be 4.6 QUADRILLION miles. The brightest single star that we are aware of is S Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the "daughter" galaxies of our Milky Way. S Doradus is 169,000 LY away, so in miles this would be 991,981,598,400,000,000 miles away. All of the other galaxies are farther away than that, but they are so far away that we generally cannot see individual stars at that distance.
How old is Alpha Centauri compared to the Sun?
The Heliopause is at a distance of appx 120 AU from the Sun. That is around 0.0019 light years. Te Alpha Centauri star system is 4.365 light years away from the Sun, and almost the same distance away from the Heliopause.
