Key Information
A Tour of Our Stellar Neighbourhood
| Type | Nearby Stars |
| Distance | Up to 50 light years |
| Total Stars | 1,800 to 2,000 (1,300 to 1,500 star systems) |
Learning Point
- Our immediate cosmic neighborhood – the 50 light-years surrounding us – is a wild collection of alien worlds. Instead of lonely yellow stars like our Sun, this local space is dominated by tiny, dim red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1, where tightly packed rocky planets crowd around their stars like huddling around a campfire. You’ll also encounter binary systems where twin stars orbit each other in a permanent gravitational dance, and bizarre planets like Gliese 436 b, a scorching “burning ice cube” squeezed solid by immense gravity. It proves that incredible cosmic diversity is waiting right in our backyard.
Project
- Draw a picture of one of our nearby stars, including any details you can find out about it.
- Overview
Location
| Location | Within the Milky Way |
Fun Facts
- Most of the stars closest to us are “Red Dwarfs.” They are much smaller and cooler than our Sun, and their planets have to crowd incredibly close to them – like huddling around a campfire – just to stay warm!
- Many stars nearby don’t like being alone. In the Alpha Centauri system, two bright suns spend their whole lives spinning and dancing around each other in a permanent circle.
- If you could visit Proxima Centauri b, the closest alien planet to Earth, you would see a dim red sun that never sets. Because the planet is locked in place, one side is stuck in a forever sunset, while the other side is permanently dark and freezing.
- Around the local star Gliese 436 sits a planet made of ice that is constantly on fire! It is so close to its star that it heats up to 800°F (430°C), but the planet’s gravity is so strong that it squeezes the water into a super-dense ice that refuses to melt.
- Just 48 light-years away is Gliese 1214 b, a planet larger than Earth that has no land, no islands, and no rocks. It is completely covered by one giant, planet-wide ocean hiding under thick, steamy clouds!
Past Lessons
| 176 | May 19, 2026 | (North America) |