Scale: 1017 meters = 100 Pm = 100 petameters

The Nearest Stars

Twenty light years from the Sun and it is now the brightest object in the center of the small square. With the exception of Sirius, the bright star along the right edge of the image, the Sun's nearest neighbors fade into the stellar background. They are mostly red dwarf stars or multiple star systems and are visible only because we are so near. As in the previous image, the background stars are far behind the Sun, their relative positions unaffected by the size of our last jump -- a mere 180 light years. There are only 12 known stars within 10 light years of Earth (including the Sun). More may be discovered but they could only be small brown dwarf stars.


Copyright © 2016 by Bruce Bryson