Nearest star is 4.5 light years away, Voyager-1 hasn't even made it 1 light-day from Earth in 50 years
28 Jul, 2025
Credit: Nasa
The closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is approximately 4.25 light-years away. This distance means light, traveling at about 300,000 km/s, takes 4.25 years to reach us from that star. Proxima Centauri is a small red dwarf star in the Alpha Centauri system, much smaller and cooler than the Sun.
Voyager 1, launched in 1977 and traveling for nearly 50 years, has not yet traveled the distance light covers in one day. While Voyager 1 has journeyed about 167 astronomical units (AU), or roughly 25 billion kilometers, it is still under one light-day from Earth, where a light-day is about 26 billion kilometers[core knowledge].
As of mid-2025, it takes light around 23 hours and 10 minutes to travel between Voyager 1 and Earth, just shy of a full light-day. Voyager 1 is expected to pass the full light-day distance mark only around November 2026, nearly 49 years after its launch[core knowledge].
Light travels roughly 300,000 kilometers per second—making it vastly faster than any human-made spacecraft. This enormous speed difference highlights the vastness of space, where distances are measured in light-years because traveling between stars with current technology is extraordinarily slow[core knowledge].
At Voyager 1's current speed, it would take over 70,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri, the nearest star. This stark figure illustrates how immense the gulf between stars really is and shows why interstellar travel remains a major scientific and engineering challenge[core knowledge].
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star roughly 12% of the Sun's mass and about 14% of its diameter. Although faint and invisible to the naked eye, it exhibits flare activity that occasionally dramatically increases its brightness. It is part of a triple star system with Alpha Centauri A and B.
From Proxima Centauri's viewpoint, the Sun would appear as a moderately bright star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Its relative proper motion and position in the night sky reflect its dynamic movement through our galaxy, making it the Sun's nearest stellar neighbor for the foreseeable future.
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