A planet circling the nearest star — maybe rocky like Earth.
Nearest known exoplanet, a rocky world in Proxima Centauri's habitable zone.
Exoplanet: A planet around another star. Every kind of thing there is →
No. No telescope on Earth will show you this one; it is here to be understood, not seen. It is here because it is worth knowing about — and because leaving it out would make the sky look emptier than it is.
On that same 100-meter-track scale model of the Milky Way, this planet sits right next to its star, Proxima Centauri -- about 4 millimeters from the Sun. Light takes 4.3 Earth years to get here from Proxima Centauri b, so what you are looking at is Proxima Centauri b as it was 4.3 Earth years ago.
| Distance from us | 4.3 light-years |
|---|---|
| Once round its orbit | 11.2 days |
Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:
TRAPPIST-1eexoplanetNot observable51 Pegasi bexoplanetNot observable
The Milky Wayspiral galaxyNaked eye
Proxima CentauristarWith effortAlpha Centauri A & Bbinary star systemNaked eyeSiriusstarNaked eyeNot this one. But the sky over your head is full of ones you can see, and the Planetarium knows which.