The nearest stars, their distances in light-years, spectral types and known worlds. (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com factor)Stars speckle the stretch of our ever-expanding universe. While our closest star is the sun that we orbit in our little corner of the cosmos, we can peer out to see what outstanding neighbors live nearby.The nearby stars to Earth are 3 stars that lie about 4.37 light-years away in the Alpha Centauri triple-star system. The closest of these stars, Proxima Centauri, is practically 4.24 light-years away. (for reference, one light-year is around equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers)). Suffice to say, “close” in area is far different from our Earthly definition.Related: Does every star have planets?Of all the stars closer than 15 light-years, just two are the same type as our sun: a G-type main-sequence star. G-type stars like our sun, likewise called yellow dwarf stars, generally have about 0.9 to 1.1 solar masses with surface area temperature levels that can range from about 9,080 degrees Fahrenheit (5,026 degrees Celsius) to 10,340 degrees F (5,726 degrees C). The only two other G-type stars in our neighborhood are Alpha Centauri A and Tau Ceti. The bulk of nearby stars are M-type stars, likewise understood as red dwarfs, the most typical stars in the universe.Only 9 of the stars in this location are brilliant enough to be seen by the naked human eye from Earth. These brilliant stars consist of Alpha Centauri A and B, Sirius A, Epsilon Eridani, Procyon, 61 Cygni A and B, Epsilon Indi A and Tau Ceti.Barnards Star, a red dwarf 5.96 light-years away, has the largest correct movement of any known star. This suggests that Barnards Star relocations rapidly against the background of more distant stars, at a rate of 10.3 seconds of arc per Earth year.Sirius A is the brightest star in Earths night sky, due to its intrinsic brightness and its proximity to us. Sirius B, a white dwarf star, is smaller than Earth but it has a mass 98 percent that of our sun.In late 2012, astronomers found that Tau Ceti might host five planets consisting of one within the stars habitable zone. Tau Ceti is the nearest single G-type star like our sun (although the Alpha Centauri triple-star system likewise hosts a G-type star and is much better). The masses of Tau Cetis worlds range from between 2 and six times the mass of Earth.This page was updated by Space.com senior writer Chelsea Gohd in Jan. 2022. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the most recent missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news suggestion, correction or remark, let us know at: [email protected].
While our closest star is the sun that we orbit in our little corner of the universes, we can peer out to see what stellar next-door neighbors live nearby.The closest stars to Earth are 3 stars that lie about 4.37 light-years away in the Alpha Centauri triple-star system. Suffice to state, “close” in area is far different from our Earthly definition.Related: Does every star have planets?Of all the stars closer than 15 light-years, just two are the same type as our sun: a G-type main-sequence star. The majority of close-by stars are M-type stars, likewise known as red overshadows, the most common stars in the universe.Only 9 of the stars in this area are bright adequate to be seen by the naked human eye from Earth.