• Question: What are the five closest stars to Earth?

    Asked by mushixxx to Sam, Kate, Claire on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I’m not going to lie, I just looked this up on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars

      Actually, the first 4 are easy:
      1) The Sun. You might have seen it if you look up during the day. Don’t stare at it! Staring is rude. Also will blind you.
      2-4) Alpha Centauri A, B and Proxima Centauri – these are 3 stars orbiting each other. A and B are a bit like our Sun in many ways, and Proxima is much smaller.
      5) Barnard’s Star – a small “red dwarf” star, one of the smallest stars that can actually burn hydrogen. These are tiny but there are a lot of them.

      Check out the Wikipedia list for more stars near us! Sirius is a big one, and not so far away.

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