Would you be able to name any of the ten closest stars to earth (not including our own sun)? If you can you might still find this list interesting. While most of these starts are light years away in terms of universe distance they are practically on our doorstep…

The Top 10 Closest Stars to Earth (Not Including the Sun)

10 – Sirius A located in Sirius – Distance Away From Earth: 8.58 Light Years

Wiki Info: A star is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye from Earth during the night, appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky due to their immense distance from Earth.

9 – Lalande 21185 located Between Systems – Distance Away From Earth: 8.29 Light Years

Wiki Info: Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, the brightest of which gained proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. However, most of the stars in the Universe, including all stars outside our galaxy, the Milky Way, are invisible to the naked eye from Earth. Indeed, most are invisible from Earth even through the most powerful telescopes.

8 – Wolf 359 located Between Systems – Distance Away From Earth: 7.78 Light Years

Wiki Info: For at least a portion of its life, a star shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core, releasing energy that traverses the star’s interior and then radiates into outer space. Almost all naturally occurring elements heavier than helium are created by stellar nucleosynthesis during the star’s lifetime, and for some stars by supernova nucleosynthesis when it explodes.

7 – WISE 0855−0714 located Between Systems – Distance Away From Earth: 7.2 Light Years

Wiki Info: Near the end of its life, a star can also contain degenerate matter. Astronomers can determine the mass, age, metallicity (chemical composition), and many other properties of a star by observing its motion through space, its luminosity, and spectrum respectively.

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6 – Luhman 16b located in Luhman 16 – Distance Away From Earth: 6.59 Light Years

Wiki Info: The total mass of a star is the main factor that determines its evolution and eventual fate. Other characteristics of a star, including diameter and temperature, change over its life, while the star’s environment affects its rotation and movement.

5 – Luhman 16A located in Luhman 16 – Distance Away From Earth: 6.59 Light Years

Wiki Info: A star’s life begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium and trace amounts of heavier elements. When the stellar core is sufficiently dense, hydrogen becomes steadily converted into helium through nuclear fusion, releasing energy in the process. The remainder of the star’s interior carries energy away from the core through a combination of radiative and convective heat transfer processes. The star’s internal pressure prevents it from collapsing further under its own gravity.

4 – Barnard’s Star located Between Systems – Distance Away From Earth: 5.96 Light Years

Wiki Info: A star with mass greater than 0.4 times the Sun’s will expand to become a red giant when the hydrogen fuel in its core is exhausted. In some cases, it will fuse heavier elements at the core or in shells around the core. As the star expands it throws a part of its mass, enriched with those heavier elements, into the interstellar environment, to be recycled later as new stars. Meanwhile, the core becomes a stellar remnant: a white dwarf, a neutron star, or if it is sufficiently massive a black hole.

3 – Centauri B located in Alpha Centauri – Distance Away From Earth: 4.36 Light Years>

Wiki Info: Binary and multi-star systems consist of two or more stars that are gravitationally bound and generally move around each other in stable orbits. When two such stars have a relatively close orbit, their gravitational interaction can have a significant impact on their evolution.[4] Stars can form part of a much larger gravitationally bound structure, such as a star cluster or a galaxy.

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2 – Centauri A located in Alpha Centauri – Distance Away From Earth: 4.36 Light Years

Wiki Info: Historically, stars have been important to civilizations throughout the world. They have been part of religious practices and used for celestial navigation and orientation. Many ancient astronomers believed that stars were permanently affixed to a heavenly sphere and that they were immutable. By convention, astronomers grouped stars into constellations and used them to track the motions of the planets and the inferred position of the Sun.

1 – Proxima Centauri located in Alpha Centauri – Distance Away From Earth: 4.24 Light Years

Wiki Info: The motion of the Sun against the background stars (and the horizon) was used to create calendars, which could be used to regulate agricultural practices.[7] The Gregorian calendar, currently used nearly everywhere in the world, is a solar calendar based on the angle of the Earth’s rotational axis relative to its local star, the Sun.