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This list of the nearest stars to Earth is ordered by increasing distance out to a maximum of 5 parsecs (16.308 light years). Including the sun, there are currently 63 stars known to lie within this distance. Stars with an apparent magnitude greater than 6.5, and which consequently cannot be observed with the naked eye, are shown in dark grey. The stellar class is shown in the color of the star's spectral classification. Parallax and distance results in red are only preliminary measurements. NotesThe light year distances for the nearest star systems taken from parallax data determined by the Research Consortium on Nearby Stars (or RECONS). The sources for their determination were as follows: H – Hipparcos catalogue. Y – Yale Parallax Catalog. S – Soderhjelm 1999. T – Tinney 1996. B - Burgasser et al. 2000 1 – Recently discovered; exact distance is still uncertain. Stellar class information is taken from RECONS at *.
Will man ever reach the nearest star? Project Daedalus found that with current technology, a hypothetical unmanned spaceship could reach Barnard's Star in about 50 years. See also | ||||||||
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