2024-09-22 22:50:00
Throughout the Earth’s gravitational pull, the stars closest to the Sun are visible to the naked eye from Earth. Because of their size and high luminosity, the bright points can travel long distances in space, being noticeable to the human eye.
Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is located 4.3 light years from the Sun. See below some interesting facts about neighboring stars.
Another view of the star Proxima Centauri. Credit: David Malin, UK Schmidt Telescope, DSS, AAO/Anglo-Australian Observatory/Royal Observatory, Edinburgh/David Malin/UKST via APOD/NASA
What are the three closest stars to the Sun?
To simplify the understanding of astronomical distances, scientists use units such as light years and astronomical units (AU). A light year is the distance that light travels in one year, which is equal to about 9.46 trillion kilometers, and one AU (the distance between the Earth and the Sun) corresponds to about 150 million kilometers.
The need to adopt other units of measurement comes from practical calculations. To give you an idea, if astronomers used a kilometer to measure the distances between objects in space, some values could exceed nine digits.
The stars closest to the sun:
- Near Centauri: Located 38 trillion kilometers from the Sun, it is classified as the faintest star in the Alpha Centauri star system. This celestial body is so far that a spacecraft traveling at 17.3 km/s would take around 73,000 years to reach it. Even if we traveled at the speed of light, the trip would still take about 4.22 years;
- Alpha Centauri A and B: There are two stars in the Alpha Centauri system: Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, which are 4.4 light years from the Sun These stars form a binary system, separated by a distance equal to 23 times the distance between Earth and the Sun (150 million kilometers ). Visible only in the Southern Hemisphere, they are close to the constellation Cruzeiro do Sul;
- Barnard’s Star: Located 5.94 light years from the Sun, Barnard’s Star is a red dwarf that has been the subject of study for over a century. In 2018, NASA confirmed the presence of an exoplanet orbiting this star. According to researchers, this exoplanet can be classified as a “Super-Earth”, with a mass 3.2 times that of Earth, orbiting over a period of about 233 days.
Stars close to the Sun reveal a lot about our place in the cosmos. With distances beyond our understanding and the ability to harbor exoplanets, these star systems continue to be an important focus of research in astronomy, gradually expanding our knowledge of the Universe.
With information from National Geographic.
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