the.com/proxima centauri
the nearest star to the sun, and still 4.24 years away at the speed of light.
means a small red dwarf star that happens to be our closest stellar neighbor, orbited by at least one rocky planet in its habitable zone.
from latin for nearest centaur, named in 1915 by scottish astronomer robert innes after he calculated it was closer to us than its bright companions alpha centauri a and b.
distance4.24 light-years, roughly 25 trillion miles away
sizeonly about one-seventh the sun's diameter
planetproxima b sits right in the habitable zone
temperamentprone to violent stellar flares that blast its planets