The Nearest Stars to Earth

These are our closest neighbors!

Note that this list is continually changing as astronomers discover nearby stars with ever more sensitive detectors in a variety of spectral ranges, especially the InfraRed, where numerous small stars emit their energy. Recall that the brightest magnitudes are the largest negative numbers.
 
Name				Distance	Apparant	Absolute
				(lightyears)	Magnitude	Magnitude
								
Sun				0.00001		-26.8		4.75	 
Proxima CentauriAlpha Cen C	4.3		?check		15.5
Rigil Kentaurus	Alpha Cen A	4.3		-0.1		4.3
Alpha Centauri B		4.3		1.5		5.8
Barnard's Star			5.9		9.5		13.2
Wolf 359			7.6		13.5		16.8
Lalande 21185			8.1		7.5		10.4
Sirius A	Alpha CMa A	8.6		-1.5		1.4
Sirius B			8.6		7.2		11.5
Luyten 726-8A			8.9		12.5		15.3
Luyten 726-8B	UV Cet		8.9		13.0		15.8
Ross 154			9.4		10.6		13.3
Ross 248			10.3		12.2		14.8
Epsilon Eridani			10.7		3.7		6.13
Luyten 789-6			10.8		12.2		14.6
Ross 128			10.8		11.1		13.5
61 Cugnus A			11.2		5.2		7.6
61 Cygnus B			11.2		6.0		8.4
Epsilon Ind			11.2		4.7		7.0
Procyon	A	Alpha CMi A	11.4		0.4		2.7
Procyon B			11.4		10.8		13.1
Sigma 2398 A			11.5		8.9		11.2
Sigma 2398 B			11.5		9.7		11.9
Groombridge 34 A		11.6		8.1		10.3
Groombridge 34 B		11.6		11.0		13.3
Lacaille 9352			11.7		7.4		9.6
Tau Ceti			11.9		3.5		5.7
BD +5deg 1668			12.2		9.8		12.0
Luyten 725-32			12.4		11.5		15.3
Kapteyn's Star			12.7		8.8		10.8
Kruger 60 A			12.8		9.7		11.9
Kruger 60 B			12.8		11.2		13.3

And a couple of brighter stars a bit farther away:
Altair		Alpha Aql	16.3		0.77		2.3
Fomalhaut	Alpha PsA A	22.8		1.16		1.9

If directions to these stars were included, you could make a map and see
that they are distributed around us more or less randomly.
What can we learn from this information? Quite a lot. To see the same list, but with some links to individual stars and constellations, see Chris Dolan's Closest Star page.
Last Updated February 8, 1996
Comments and questions via mailto: Bill Baity
Or contact him at Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (CASS), UCSD 0424, 9500 Gilman Drive, LaJolla CA 92093-0424, tel (619) 534-3209, wbaity@ucsd.edu