List of nearest stars Totally Explained

Everything about Nearest Stars totally explained

This list of stars nearest to the Earth is ordered by increasing distance out to a maximum of 5 parsecs (16.308 light-years). Including the Solar System, there are currently 50 stellar systems known which may lie within this distance. These systems contain a total of 65 known stars and 4 known brown dwarfs. Stars and brown dwarfs which have an apparent magnitude greater than 6.5, and which consequently can't be observed with the naked eye, are shown in bluish. The classes of the stars and brown dwarfs are shown in the color of their spectral types. (These colors are derived from conventional names for the spectral types and don't reflect the star's observed color.) Some parallax and distance results were measured by RECONS and may be only preliminary measurements.

#	Designation		Stellar class	m_V	M_V	T_eff K (±err)	Epoch J2000.0		Parallax Arcseconds (±err)	Distance Light-years(±err)	Additional references
#	System	Star	Stellar class	m_V	M_V	T_eff K (±err)	RA	—	Parallax Arcseconds (±err)	Distance Light-years(±err)	Additional references	—	180°	0.0000158(3) or approx. 8 light-minutes
1	Alpha Centauri (Rigil Kentaurus; Toliman)	Proxima Centauri (V645 Centauri)	M5.5Ve	11.09	4.2421(16)
		α Centauri A (HD 128620)	G2V			0.747 23(1 17)″	4.3650(68)
		α Centauri B (HD 128621)	K0V			0.747 23(1 17)″	4.3650(68)		0.546 98(1 00)″			0.419 10(2 10)″			0.393 42(0 70)″	0.380 02(1 28)″
6	Luyten 726-8	Luyten 726-8 A (BL Ceti)	M5.5Ve	12.54	11.991(57)											0.380 02(1 28)″
6	Luyten 726-8	21	YZ Ceti (LHS 138)		M4.5V				0.199 65(2 30)″	16.337(188)
#	System	Star	Stellar class	m_V	M_V	T_eff K (±err)	RA	Dec	Parallax Arcseconds (±err)	Distance Light-years(±err)	Additional references
#	Designation		Stellar class	m_V	M_V	T_eff K (±err)	Epoch J2000.0		Parallax Arcseconds (±err)	Distance Light-years(±err)	Additional references

Graphical representation of stellar classes

Size and colour of the Sun compared to the stars of the Alpha Centauri system (#1) (2 yellow dwarfs, an orange dwarf & a red dwarf, respectively).
The Morgan-Keenan spectral classification for main sequence or "dwarf" stars.

Map of Nearby Stars

The following map shows all 32 star systems within 14 light-years of the Sun (shown as Sol). Double and triple stars are shown "stacked," but the true location is the star closest to the central plane. Colour corresponds to the table above.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Nearest Stars'.

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