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Proxima Centauri

author: Anglo-Australian Observatory/David Malin Images/Novapix

reference: a-eto01-00101

Image Size 300 DPI: 51 * 40 cm

Proxima Centauri is the nearest known star to the sun, at a distance of about 4.2 light years. It is an intrinsically faint red star, more than ten magnitudes (ten thousand times) fainter than the Sun. It is also much cooler, with a surface temperature of about 3100 C. Its visual (apparent) magnitude is eleven, so it is only visible with a good telescope, and only then from southern latitudes. Proxima is about one-tenth the mass of the sun, which accounts for its low surface temperature. It is possibly an outlying member of the triple alpha Centauri system just a few light days closer to us than the other, much brighter stars in the group.

Keywords for this photo:

AAO - ASTRONOMY - CENTAURUS - DWARF - FLARE STAR - M STAR - POSTER - PROXIMA CENTAURI - RED DWARF - SIDING SPRING - SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE - STAR -