Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri (Latin proxima: meaning 'next to' or 'nearest to')[9] is a red dwarf star approximately 4.2 light-years (3.97 × 1013 km) distant in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in South Africa. The star is the nearest star to the Sun.[8] Its distance to the second and third nearest stars, which form the binary star Alpha Centauri, is only 0.21 ly (15,000 ± 700 astronomical units [AU]).[10]

Because of the proximity of this star, its angular diameter can be measured directly, yielding a diameter one-seventh that of the Sun.[8] Proxima Centauri's mass is about an eighth of the Sun's, and its average density is about 40 times that of the Sun.[nb 2] Although it has a very low average luminosity, Proxima Centauri is a flare star that undergoes random increases in brightness because of magnetic activity.[11] The star's magnetic field is created by convection throughout the stellar body, and the resulting flare activity generates a total X-ray emission similar to that produced by the Sun.[12] The mixing of the fuel at Proxima Centauri's core through convection and the star's relatively low energy production rate means that it will be a main-sequence star for another four trillion years,[13] or nearly 300 times the current age of the universe

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