The celestial bodies, which include the stars, are some of the most unique creations on the planet. Thousands of astronomers have been studying them for hundreds of years, but they do not get tired of making more and more new discoveries.
Admiring the starry sky in clear weather, you can see both bright and dim stars. It seems that the closest stars to the Earth should be brighter and more noticeable, but most often the opposite happens - the shining of distant stars dwarfs the light of nearby ones and they become less noticeable. The existence of some of the stars closest to our planet was discovered not so long ago, when they began to use more powerful equipment that allows them to be seen.
Neighbors in the Galaxy
The closest star to Earth and at the same time the most famous and contemplated almost all year round is, of course, the Sun. It is far from the largest, but life on the planet depends on it. Many scientific articles have been written about its size and power, so people in general have a general idea of what it is. But the Sun has many "neighbors" that are located close to the Earth. Almost all of them have now been thoroughly studied by astronauts. The exception is very small and dim stars.
So, a list of nearby stars:
- Centauri... This star has three parts. They are all within a 5-light-year radius of the Sun. The first is Proxima Centauri, the second is Alpha Centauri A, and the third is Alpha Centauri B. According to recent studies, their age is about 4,850,000 years. The temperature on them is from 3,000 to 5,700 degrees Kelvin;
- Barnard... It is also known as Barnard's Flying Star. It is a red dwarf and, unlike other stars, moves quickly and approaches the Sun. According to the forecast, in 10 thousand years it will become the closest star to him, but with time it will again move away;
- Wolf 359... Also a red dwarf, the apparent magnitude of which is 13.45;
- Laland 21185... It is more than 8 light years distant from the Sun. It is a red dwarf with an apparent magnitude of 7.49 and a luminosity of 0.0052;
- Sirius... As well as Centauri, it consists of several parts, or rather of two: Sirius A and Sirius B. The dog star (Sirius A) is the brightest star, if you do not take into account the Sun. Its luminosity exceeds, according to various sources, from 17 to 23 solar. Sirius B or Puppy is her companion, a white dwarf.
These are just the top 5 stars that are close to Earth. They are alternately followed by the star Leuthen or Kita (consists of two parts: A and B), Ross 154, Ross 248, Epsilon Eridani and Lúthien 786-6. Each of the stars has its own characteristics (weight, luminosity, temperature, size). But, nevertheless, they all belong to the category "closest star to Earth". This means that they are of particular interest not only for astronauts, but also for those who admire the night stars.
The Sun is the basis of our system - the closest star to the Earth, which, unlike all other objects, we clearly see on a clear day. At night, the rest of the luminaries of the endless space become available for observation. The number of stars filling the universe is impossible to count. But the nearest celestial bodies located within a radius of 16, scientists have designated and made a list. It includes 57 star systems. Some of them are not lonely luminaries, but double and triple stars, so the total number of celestial bodies reaches 64. The list also includes 13 brown dwarfs, significantly inferior to the rest of the objects in mass.
We can only see 7 stars from the list without the help of optical amplification -, Alpha Centauri, Epsilon Eridani, Epsilon Indian, Tau Ceti, 61 Cygnus. All of them have an apparent magnitude in the range from 1.43 to 6.03. Most luminaries belong to spectral class M (red), their temperature is 2600-3800 K. Hot stars - Sirius A, spectral class A (white), 9940 K and Procyon A, class F (yellow-white), 6650 K. Brown the dwarfs included in the list belong to additional spectral classes L, T, Y. The list also includes 4 white dwarfs of class D, which are rather rare objects in the visible sector of the Galaxy.
Characteristics of Alpha Centauri - the closest star system to Earth
The smallest distance - 4.22 light years - separates our planet from one of the three elements of the Alpha Centauri star system. According to its characteristics, the star closest to the Earth (excluding the Sun) differs significantly from its neighbors. This star belongs to the spectral class M (red dwarf), and its mass and radius do not exceed 0.1 solar. Due to the low temperature - 3042 K - it emits little energy and cannot be detected with the naked eye. It was opened in 1915. Periodic and active flares enhance the star's luminosity. Proxima Centauri and the rest of its native system are separated by a significant distance of 0.21 light years, so whether it is in its orbit is not reliably determined. If it is proved that Proxima is orbiting a binary star, then its total period exceeds 500 thousand years. Searches for possible exoplanets near the star were unsuccessful, scientists exclude the presence of large planets in its orbit.
The other two components of the system - Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B - closely interact with each other. From Earth, they are observed as one star. The system is 4.36 light years away. The objects are classified as spectral classes G and K - they are yellow and orange dwarfs. In terms of their characteristics and temperature, they are similar to the Sun, but older in age, which reaches 6 billion years. Component Centauri A is larger than its neighbor, its mass is 1.1, and its diameter is 1.2 solar. The Centaurus B scores are 0.9 and 0.86, respectively. The luminaries rotate in an elliptical orbit, the angle of inclination is 79.2 degrees, their period is 79.9 years.
Exoplanets Alpha Centauri
The search for planets included in the systems of the stars closest to us is conducted regularly. Particular attention is paid to yellow and red dwarfs. To find companions near distant objects, scientists have to measure the radial velocity of stars using spectrographs installed on the most powerful telescopes. The main research was carried out by two independent groups: California and Geneva, which focused on a limited number of objects. Among them was Alpha Centauri. European astronomers have been able to achieve positive results. In 2012, analyzing a record amount of data, they reported a planet named Alpha Centauri B b. A clear signal, appearing at intervals of 3.2 days, indicated a body with a mass of 1.13 Earths. The exoplanet is represented by a sphere heated to 1200 degrees. This temperature is kept due to the close placement of the orbit to the surface of the star. Its year is just over three Earth days. It does not fall into the conditional zone where life could arise, its size in this case is 0.5-0.9 AU. e. from the luminary.
Further research and computer simulations give hope for the presence of a second, larger and more distant planet near Alpha Centauri B, with a rotation period of 20.4 days. According to hypothetical calculations, the influence of Centaurus A will affect once every 70 years. With the presence of oceans, its desert surface will become much more vulnerable.
Barnard's Star
The star, discovered by E. Barnard in 1916 and named after him, belongs to the spectral type M. It is a red dwarf. Its location is the equatorial constellation Ophiuchus, at a distance of 5.96 light years from Earth. The small star is significantly inferior to our Sun, reaching 0.17 of its value in mass and diameter. The star cannot be detected with the naked eye, however, it is the fourth farthest from us. "Flying Barnard" is famous for the agility of its own movement, which is directed towards our Sun. One day she will become closer to us than Proxima Centauri. Its speed is a record, it travels 10.36 arc seconds per year.
Presence of planets
The Californian team of scientists has been making efforts for decades to find planets surrounded by Barnard's star, but so far there is no evidence of their existence.
Luhmann 16
The constellation Sails, located in the Southern Hemisphere, has become the home of a binary system of brown dwarfs, which are the next farthest neighbors of the Sun. Luhmann 16 was 6.59 light years away. The two elements of the system are almost identical, their mass is 0.4-0.5 solar. The rotation period is two decades. No other bodies have been found in the vicinity of this binary star system.
It will take 70,000 years for an earthly spacecraft to travel to our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, to reach it.
The distance between the components of the binary star Alpha Centauri is 22 arc seconds. They merge when viewed with the naked eye, but separate when viewed even with the simplest telescope. The angular distance between Centauri A and B is not constant. In 2010, it was 6.74 arc seconds, and by 2016 it will decrease to 4. The maximum value will be observed in 2056.
Among the stars close to us, only 3 belong to the luminaries of the first magnitude: Sirius, Alpha Centauri and Procyon, and the closest star to Earth is a red dwarf.
Our Universe is one big mystery over which many scientists and researchers are racking their brains. For a long time, interest in the planet Earth and its "neighbors" did not allow tens of thousands of people to sleep peacefully. Today, scientists have made many steps forward in their research and answered questions, but only a few. Otherwise, space is a big mystery for humanity.
Earth and nearby stars
Planet Earth, as you know, is far from the only one in the Universe and not the largest (smallest) in size. But she is truly unique for many reasons. Among them: the presence of water and oxygen, which helps us to live, unique soils, trace elements, the ideal distance from the Sun and much more. Quite often people want to know about what is happening outside our planet.
The closest star to Earth is also interesting for those who like the unusual. It has long been called the Sun that huge ball, which is located next to our planet. As you know, this unique star is different from all the others: it consists of an incandescent plasma, and not a single creature in the Universe can be near it.
Characteristic of the Sun
Scientists have found that it is the Sun that occupies 99.8% of the entire mass of the system. In addition, the star is a source of energy, thanks to which everything that we see around occurs. It was not in vain that ancient civilizations worshiped the Sun. They perfectly understood his importance in our life and idolized him.
An interesting fact is the size of the Sun. Scientists claim that 1300 Earth planets can be placed inside it. In addition, it, like a magnet, attracts other objects of the system and satellites, as well as cosmic dust and asteroids.
Features of the Sun
It was found that the closest star to Earth is the Sun, which is why (and for many other reasons) so much time was devoted to it. As a result of research, scientists have established that it was formed from a cloud of gas and dust about 4.6 billion years ago. It is known that the Sun heats up very slowly, absorbing all the hydrogen around it. Thus, in a few billion years, it will reach its peak. It is possible that the closest star to Earth will expand so much that it engulfs the inner planets, including ours.
Equally interesting is the fact that the Sun is white, although all people associate it with red or orange. Studying the solar system, you can see spots on the star's plasma. This is due to strong magnetic fields. It is believed that activity changes over eleven years. When it is minimal, there are practically no sunspots on the Sun. It is worth noting that the luminary emits wind and charged particles that scatter throughout space, affecting nearby planets. If the Earth did not have a magnetic field, then these elements could destroy us. This invisible barrier has kept us alive for several million years.
The closest star to Earth
Heavenly bodies and appearances have always attracted people. Many are interested in what is the closest star to Earth. Almost all researchers argue that there are other assumptions. According to some scientists, the closest star, the subgiant HD 140283, is the very object that researchers have been looking for for so long. The age of the cosmic long-liver is 13.2 billion years.
But still, many are inclined to believe that the Sun is the closest star to the Earth. In fact, within a radius of 5 pc (16.308 light years) there are many space objects that are close to our planet. In total, 57 are known to date
Feature HD 140283
So, according to some scientists, HD 140283 is the closest star to Earth. Having examined it in more detail, they revealed that the cosmic long-liver belongs to a rare species of giant luminaries. This group includes objects whose mass is higher but lower than large ones. The subgiant today is located at a distance of 186 from the Earth. The composition and features of HD 140283 make it possible to assign it to the second population, that is, to the group that unites the most ancient stars. Such luminaries are jokingly called objects that appeared in the youth of our Universe.
Unfortunately, the oldest and closest star to Earth is slowly fading away, that is, it loses its brightness. Having studied the luminary in more detail, scientists came to an extraordinary conclusion: the age of the object exceeded the lifetime of the entire universe.
There is such a thing as "Methuselah", which means "biblical long-liver." HD 140283 claims just such a name. But at the moment, the star is competing with another red dwarf, which may be its peer or younger brother.
Thus, there are many nearby stars around our planet, which illuminate our earth at night, but are in no hurry to reveal the secrets of space to us. The sun is assigned an exceptional role.
The starry sky and space have always attracted the attention of our ancestors. Beckoned to him. Since olden times, people have possessed a certain amount of knowledge about the motion of the planets, predicted various celestial phenomena and much more. As our civilization developed, new previously unknown interesting facts were discovered, however, facts, as a rule, carry a double meaning, or even more.
It is believed that the largest star in our universe is called VY and it is located among the stars of the constellation called Big Dog. Its radius is one million four hundred fifty thousand kilometers. But if a more powerful telescope is invented than exists today and an even more distant and larger star is discovered, then VY will give the “palm” to that newly discovered star.
The question arises, what is the closest star to the Earth? Let's say right away that our galaxy is the Milky Way. The galaxy includes clusters of stars, gas, and cosmic dust, which can be seen with the naked eye and through a telescope. The Milky Way Galaxy is just a part of our large Universe, which consists of a large number of other galaxies.
The knowledge we gain is rather ambiguous. Until one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four, it was believed that the closest star to the Earth is located in the constellation of the Large Magellanic Clouds. After some time, it was recognized that the closest to the Milky Way at a distance of eighty-two thousand light years is a dwarf galaxy belonging to the constellation Sagittarius.
But these facts soon changed. In two thousand and three, it became known that a dwarf ellipse-shaped cluster of stars in the constellation Canis Major is located closer to us.
The question still remains open about which star is the closest to our galaxy. The matter is complicated by the fact that the galaxies under consideration, located closest to ours, are on the opposite side of the Milky Way. This means that for technical reasons, it is impossible to observe them in the existing wavelengths. That is, it is impossible to see them with your own eyes with the help of existing equipment.
For other wavelengths, modern equipment does not yet exist. It should be added that our and the dwarf galaxies in the Canis Major constellation somehow intersect. The star Sirius is one of the brightest and closest stars to our Earth. It is located at the intersection of our two galaxies and is a white dwarf, one of the first to be discovered. We can only wait until our science moves forward and creates such opportunities for humanity, with the help of which the answer to the question of what is the closest star to the Earth will be found.
>>> The closest star to Earth
The closest star to Earth- The sun. Explore a star outside the solar system - bright Alpha Centauri and 20 stars closest to Earth at distances.
To catch your friends, you can ask them about the star closest to Earth. Most immediately start talking about Betelgeuse or Sirius. But here's the catch. Of course, the Sun is located closest to the Earth (150 million km). But what heavenly body, besides the sun, is the closest star to Earth?
What is the closest star to Earth?
The closest star to Earth besides the Sun is considered Alpha Centauri. It has the third highest brightness and is only 4.37 light years distant. But this is not a single object, but a triple system. First of all, we see a binary pair revolving around a common center of gravity in 80 years. Alpha Centauri A is brighter than the Sun, and Alpha Centauri B is slightly inferior. The third member of this system is Proxima Centauri. Remember this name, as it is she who is the closest star to Earth (4.24 light years).
The Alpha Centauri system is located in the constellation Centaurus, which can only be observed from the southern hemisphere. But even there you will not be able to see this star. The fact is that it is too weak and a fairly powerful telescope will be needed. For you to understand, it would take 78,000 years for the New Horizons spacecraft to reach Proxima Centauri.
Proxima Centauri has been the closest star to Earth for 32,000 years and will remain there for another 33,000 years. In 26,700 years, it will shorten the distance to 3.11 light years. After her, the closest star to Earth is Ross 248.
The closest star to Earth in the Northern Hemisphere
The closest star to Earth in the northern hemisphere is Barnard's star - a red dwarf in the constellation Ophiuchus. But it is also dim and invisible to the naked eye. If we take only the stars available for observation without the use of special technology, then Sirius is located the closest (8.6 light years). It is twice the size and mass of the Sun.
How are distances to stars measured?
Parallax is used to determine the distance to a star from Earth. What's the point? Extend your hand and place your finger against a distant object. Close your eyes one by one and you will realize that the object seems to be shifting. This is parallax.
It is necessary to calculate the distance to the star when our planet is in one of its orbits (in summer), and then wait 6 months until it is on the opposite side, and measure again. Then we measure the angle in relation to another object. This scheme works for any object within 100 light years.
There are 45 stars located 17 light years from the system. There could be 200 billion in total in the galaxy. Some are so weak that they cannot be detected.
List of 20 closest stars to Earth
This list shows the nearest stars and stellar systems, as well as the distance from Earth in light years. Some of them have multiple stars, but are part of a specific system. So:
- Alpha Centauri - 4.2;
- Bernard's Star - 5.9;
- Wolf 359 - 7.8;
- Laland 21185 - 8.3;
- Sirius - 8.6;
- Lieuten 726-8 - 8.7;
- Ross 154 - 9.7;
- Ross 248 - 10.3;
- Epsilon Eridani - 10.5;
- Lecail 9352 - 10.7;
- Ross 128 - 10.9;
- EZ Aquarius - 11.3;
- Procyon - 11.4;
- 61 Swans - 11.4;
- Struve 2398 - 11.5;
- Groombridge 34 - 11.6;
- Epsilon Indian - 11.8;
- Dx Cancer - 11.8;
- Tau Kita - 11.9;
- GJ 106 - 11.9.
According to NASA, there are 45 more stars that are within 17 light years of the Sun. Some are so small and dim that they are nearly impossible to detect. Who knows, but maybe with the improvement of technological capabilities, scientists will be able to find even closer systems of stars.