The Herrett Center for Arts & Science

The 75 Nearest Stars

This page was inspired by the release of data from the HIPPARCOS satellite, whose unprecedented astrometric accuracy will undoubtedly change and improve our understanding of the Universe for years to come. At the very least, it has given us a more accurate picture of the distribution of stars in the immediate vicinity of the Sun. The following table gives our current best estimates of the distances to our nearest stellar neighbors in the galaxy.

Rank Star Name Distance (l.y.) Range Source
1 Proxima Centauri 4.2231 4.2100-4.2364 HIPPARCOS
2 α Centauri A 4.3950 4.3867-4.4033 HIPPARCOS
3 α Centauri B 4.3950 4.3867-4.4033 HIPPARCOS
4 Barnard's Star 5.9409 5.9239-5.9580 HIPPARCOS
5 Wolf 359 7.782 7.744-7.822 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
6 BD+36°2147 8.3120 8.2927-8.3313 HIPPARCOS
7 Sirius A 8.6011 8.5654-8.6371 HIPPARCOS
8 Sirius B 8.6011   (HIPPARCOS)
9 L726-8A 8.728 8.665-8.791 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
10 L726-8B 8.728   (Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes)
11 Ross 154 9.6934 9.6412-9.7461 HIPPARCOS
12 Ross 248 10.32 10.29-10.36 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
13 ε Eridani 10.496 10.467-10.525 HIPPARCOS
14 CD-36°15693 10.733 10.702-10.763 HIPPARCOS
15 Ross 128 10.887 10.808-10.968 HIPPARCOS
16 L789-6A 11.27 11.10-11.44 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
17 L789-6B 11.27   (Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes)
18 L789-6C 11.27   (Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes)
19 61 Cygni A 11.359 11.300-11.419 HIPPARCOS
20 Procyon A 11.407 11.372-11.442 HIPPARCOS
21 Procyon B 11.407   (HIPPARCOS)
22 61 Cygni B 11.427 11.399-11.456 HIPPARCOS
23 BD+59°1915B 11.465 11.267-11.671 HIPPARCOS
24 BD+59°1915A 11.637 11.531-11.745 HIPPARCOS
25 BD+43°44A 11.637 11.594-11.681 HIPPARCOS
26 BD+43°44B 11.637   (HIPPARCOS) 
27 ε Indi 11.828 11.798-11.857 HIPPARCOS
28 G51-15 11.83 11.70-11.96 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
29 τ Ceti 11.896 11.862-11.931 HIPPARCOS
30 L372-58 11.93 11.71-12.16 RECONS
31 L725-32 12.123 11.791-12.474 HIPPARCOS
32 BD+05°1668 12.389 12.322-12.457 HIPPARCOS
33 Kapteyn's Star 12.778 12.735-12.821 HIPPARCOS
34 CD-39°14192 12.873 12.816-12.931 HIPPARCOS
35 Krüger 60 A 13.072 12.914-13.232 HIPPARCOS
36 Krüger 60 B 13.072   (HIPPARCOS)
37 Ross 614 A 13.428 13.284-13.576 HIPPARCOS
38 Ross 614 B 13.428   (HIPPARCOS)
39 L 622-8A 13.865 12.658-15.326 HIPPARCOS
40 BD-12°4523 13.908 13.801-14.017 HIPPARCOS
41 CD-37°15492 14.222 14.156-14.290 HIPPARCOS
42 Wolf 424A 14.31 14.03-14.61 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
43 Wolf 424B 14.31   (Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes)
44 BD-13°637B 14.340 11.277-19.689 HIPPARCOS
45 van Maanen's Star 14.372 14.040-14.718 HIPPARCOS
46 L1159-16 14.51 14.32-14.70 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
47 L143-23 14.67 13.95-15.44 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
48 L 622-8B 14.705 11.213-21.356 HIPPARCOS
49 BD+68°946 14.768 14.707-14.880 HIPPARCOS
50 CD-46°11540 14.797 14.688-14.907 HIPPARCOS
51 LP 731-58 14.81 14.57-15.05 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
52 G208-44A 14.81 14.75-14.88 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
53 G208-44B 14.81   (Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes)
54 G208-45 14.81   (Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes)
55 BD-15°6346B 15.064 13.891-16.453 HIPPARCOS
56 L145-141 15.072 14.927-15.221 HIPPARCOS
57 G158-27 15.31 15.06-15.58 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
58 BD-15°6290 15.335 15.185-15.488 HIPPARCOS
59 BD+44°2051A 15.761 15.671-15.852 HIPPARCOS
60 BD+44°2051B 15.761   (HIPPARCOS) 
61 BD+50°1725 15.893 15.831-15.956 HIPPARCOS
62 BD+20°2465 15.94 15.73-16.16 Yale Catalog of Trig. Parallaxes
63 HIP 82725 16.066 14.042-18.773 HIPPARCOS
64 HIP 85605 16.092 13.468-19.984 HIPPARCOS
65 CD-49°13515 16.104 15.999-16.211 HIPPARCOS
66 LP 944-20 16.19 15.86-16.54 RECONS
67 CD-44°11909 16.446 16.247-16.650 HIPPARCOS
68 ο² Eridani A 16.453 16.384-16.523 HIPPARCOS
69 ο² Eridani B 16.453   (HIPPARCOS)
70 ο² Eridani C 16.453   (HIPPARCOS)
71 BD+43°4305A 16.467 16.298-16.639 HIPPARCOS
72 70 Ophiuchi A 16.588 16.473-16.706 HIPPARCOS
73 70 Ophiuchi B 16.588   (HIPPARCOS)
74 Altair 16.774 16.694-16.856 HIPPARCOS
75 AC+79°3888 17.585 17.493-17.721 HIPPARCOS

Explanatory Notes:

RANK indicates the order of proximity to the Sun, according to current best measurements.

DISTANCE is given in light years, with the number of significant digits indicative of the accuracy stated in the source catalog.

RANGE gives the minimum and maximum distances of the star according to the standard error of the stated parallax. In cases where the star was not measured directly but is part of a system whose primary was, no range is supplied.

SOURCE indicates the catalog from which parallax data were obtained, either the HIPPARCOS catalog, the Fourth Yale Catalog of Trigonometric Parallaxes, or the Research Consortium on Nearby Stars (RECONS) project. In cases where the star is part of a system where only the primary was observed, the source catalog name is in parentheses.


The distances listed in the table above were determined by the method of parallax, illustrated at left. The orbit of the Earth around the Sun forms a baseline whose length is the diameter of the orbit. The average distance of the Earth from the Sun is one Astronomical Unit (AU), equal to 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles. As the Earth orbits the Sun, relatively nearby stars will seem to shift back and forth with respect to more distant stars. This shift is called parallax. If the difference in the star's position as seen from the Sun as compared to the Earth is 1 arc second (1/3600 degree), its distance is, by definition, 1 parsec. In reality, the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) has a parallax of 0.77233 arcsec, and is thus more than one parsec distant (1.2948 parsecs, to be exact). One parsec equals 3.261631 light years or 30,856,780,000,000 kilometers (19,173,510,000,000 miles).