Key facts
- Category
- Stars
- Object class
- M-type red dwarf star
- Mass
- ~0.12 solar masses
- Host
- Alpha Centauri system
- Scale fact
- 215,000 kmdiameter
- Estimated age
- ~4.8 billion years
- Composition
- Hydrogen and helium
- Temperature
- ~3,000 K surface
Proxima Centauri
215,000 kmdiameter
Visual creditscaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
Details
Proxima Centauri is the nearest known star to the Sun, just over four light-years away. ESA describes it as a flare star prone to dramatic brightening, yet because it burns fuel so slowly it may remain on the main sequence for another four trillion years.
Proxima Centauri has only about one-eighth of the Sun's mass and is too faint to see with the unaided eye, despite being the nearest star beyond the Sun. It is also a flare star: magnetic activity can produce abrupt increases in brightness and intense radiation.
Low-mass red dwarfs consume their hydrogen slowly. Models cited by ESA put Proxima's remaining main-sequence lifetime near four trillion years—hundreds of times the present age of the universe. Frequent flares and extreme longevity are two consequences of the same small, fully convective star.
Links
- Editorial guides
- Universe journey
- Solar neighborhood
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Proxima Centauri on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Proxima Centauri on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, Proxima Centauri falls between Luhman 16 B and Lalande 21185. The band uses nearby M-type red dwarf star records.
Shared physical scale
415,235km
Sources
References for Proxima Centauri
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Proxima Centauri — Wikipedia
- Visual: scaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.