When we take a glimpse to the sky, sometimes we wonder which of the stars we're looking at are the ones closer to our planet, as they're too far away they seem to be on the same background surrounding us (that's the way we call it "Celestial Sphere"!); it will be more interesting if we can actually know which of those stars are hosting planetary systems, like our Sun, so here I list the top 10 of the closest star systems to Earth:
| Name | Constellation | Distance (ly) | Confirmed planets |
|---|---|---|---|
Alpha Centauri B |
Centaurus |
4,4 |
1 |
Epsilon Eridani |
Eridanus |
10,5 |
1 |
Gliese 674 |
Ara |
14,8 |
1 |
Gliese 876 |
Aquarius |
15,3 |
4 |
Gliese 832 |
Grus |
16,1 |
1 |
82 G. Eridani |
Eridanus |
19,7 |
3 |
Gliese 581 |
Libra |
20,0 |
4 |
Gliese 667 C |
Scorpius |
23,0 |
5 |
Formalhaut |
Piscis Austrinus |
25,1 |
1 |
61 Virginis |
Virgo |
28,0 |
3 |
The abbreviation "ly" stands for "light year", and it's the distance traveled by light in one year, having the speed of light in the void (~300 000 km/s), we have that 1 light year is the equivalent of ~9,46E12 km, compare that with the average distance from the Earth to the Sun (~1,50E8 km, which is called "astronomical unit" [au]) and you can have an idea on how far away those systems are from us!