What star is the closest to us in the milky way?

Answer 1

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 years

The 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 1918

See related link for more information.

Answer 2

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our sun and solar system at 4.3 light years distant and is part of the Alpha Centauri star system. Alpha Centauri is a star 4.37 light years distant. See the related links for verification.

Answer 3

The nearest star to the sun is Proxima Centauri, which is at a distance of about 4.22 light years.

This is approximately 4 x 1013 kilometers (40 trillion kilometers) or about 6,000 times as far as Pluto ever gets from the Sun.

Answer 4

It is called Proxima Centauri; this is actually a triple star system consisting of Alpha Centauri A and B which orbit each other with a mean separation of 11 AU's and orbit each other every 70 years the third star Proxima Centauri is 11,000 AU's from A and B and lies much closer to us it is so far away that is highly unlikely that it is still gravitationally bound to A and B it is an M5 class red dwarf which is so faint it wasn't discovered until 1928.

Answer 5

Horse Isle Answer: Sun ~ CherryMist ~ Brown server ~

Proxmia Centauri.

ANSWER:

AlphaCentori

Answer: Every time someone answers this question they forget about Sol, our own sun only 8 light minutes away. The next closest star is more than 4 light years away.

Answer 6

The closest star to the Earth is the Sun.

The closest star to the Sun is a red dwarf called Proxima Centauri, about 4.2 light-years away. It is so small that it cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Answer 7

Other than the Sun, the closest star to earth is Proxima Centauri. It is 4.2 light years away. There is the possibility of discovering closer stars in the future. They would be very faint and hard to see. That's why astronomers are always demanding stronger telescopes.

Answer 8

Apart from the Sun the closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri or Alpha Centauri C. It is 4.2 light years away.

Proxima Centauri is part of a 3 star system The principle stars are Alpha Centauri A & B which are 4.3 light years. Proxima is gravitationally linked the two stars at a distance of 0.21 light years or 13,280 AU.

Answer 9

For a long time, astronomers thought that the star Alpha Centauri was the nearest star (actually, TWO stars; they are a binary system) to our Sun, at about 4.5 light years. But then they discovered a red dwarf Proxima Centauri that is about .3 ly closer! Because Proxima Centauri is so small and dim, it cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Answer 10

Proxima Centauri. Turns out that there is no practical way, using today's available technology that we can travel to Proxima Centauri (a red dwarf star, 4.33 light years from the Solar System). This is a shame as there are so many stars and so many exoplanets to explore, which space enthusiast wouldn't want to envisage interstellar space travel? However, there may be help at hand, using modern technology and materials; we might be able to mount a manned expedition to Proxima lasting a little under a century...

So how long would it take? Using two examples, the SMART-1 propulsion system and Voyager's gravitational sling-shot, we arrive at prohibitively long time scales. Using SMART-1′s ion thrusters (economical but very slow), we have an upper limit of 81,000 years to travel to Proxima Centauri (that's 2700 generations!). Next up, gravitational assists (using the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn to boost a spacecraft into deep space). Voyager for example is travelling quite a lick through the limits of the outer Solar System. At 38,000 miles/hr, Voyager would take 76,000 years (2,500 generations) to travel to Proxima Centauri. Still not good, it seems we need to travel at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light before we turn the 4.33 light year trip from an epoch into a human lifetime.

There is one technology that does promise to succeed in this goal. Nuclear pulse propulsion could push a manned spaceship to 5% the speed of light. 5% of 4.33 light years is approximately 85 years... This is a very interesting concept