Proxima Centauri

Epic card · No. 13756

Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to Earth after the Sun, located 4.25 light-years (1.3 parsecs) away in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, it is a small, low-mass star, too faint to be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 11.13. Proxima Centauri is a member of the Alpha Centauri star system, being identified as component Alpha Centauri C, and is 2.18° southwest of the Alpha Centauri AB pair. It is currently 12,950 AU (0.2 ly) from AB, which it orbits with a period of about 550,000 years. Its Latin name means the 'nearest [star] of Centaurus'. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star with a mass about 12.5% of the Sun's mass (M☉), and average density about 33 times that of the Sun. Because of Proxima Centauri's proximity to Earth, its angular diameter can be measured directly. Its actual diameter is about one-seventh (15%) the diameter of the Sun. Although it has a very low average luminosity, Proxima Centauri is a flare star that...

Read on Wikipedia · Image ESA/Hubble & NASA, CC BY 4.0