What star is second closest to earth?
(Hypothetical world with three suns - http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/newworlds/threesun-071305a.html)
After the Sun, the next closest star is actually a star system known as Alpha Centauri. It is made up of three stars: Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri C).
- Alpha Centauri A is a yellow dwarf star that is quite similar to our own Sun, but it has about 10% greater mass.
- Alpha Centauri B is an orange dwarf star that is slightly smaller than the Sun. It has about 90% of the Sun's mass.
- Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star with a mass about eight times smaller than that of the Sun.
Although these three stars orbit each other, Proxima Centauri orbits the other two at a greater distance and is the actual second closest star to Earth!
Alpha Centauri C actually gets its nickname (Proxima Centauri) from the Latin word proxima: meaning "next to" or "nearest to".
The pairing of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are approximately 4.37 light years away from Earth, while Proxima Centauri is about 4.22 light years away. That is about 40.1 trillion kilometers away!
Even though some people say that Alpha Centauri is the second closest star to Earth, technically it is Alpha Centauri C that actually is.
Here is a list of the 15 closest stars to Earth:
- The Sun - 150 million kilometers away
- Proxima Centauri - 40.1 trillion kilometers away
- Alpha Centauri A - 41.5 trillion kilometers away
- Alpha Centauri B - 41.5 trillion kilometers away
- Barnard’s Star - 56.6 trillion kilometers away
- Wolf 359 - 73.9 trillion kilometers away
- Lalande 21185 - 78.8 trillion kilometers away
- Sirius A - 81.5 trillion kilometers away
- Sirius B - 81.5 trillion kilometers away
- Luyten 726-8 A - 82.9 trillion kilometers away
- Luyten 726-8 B - 82.9 trillion kilometers away
- Ross 154 - 92.0 trillion kilometers away
- Ross 248 - 98.0 trillion kilometers away
- Epsilon Eridani - 99.9 trillion kilometers away
- Lacaille 9352 - 102 trillion kilometers away