Proxima Centauri

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Related to Proxima Centauri: Betelgeuse, Barnard's Star, Alpha Centauri

Prox·i·ma Cen·tau·ri

(prŏk′sə-mə sĕn-tôr′ē)

The closest to Earth of three stars in the Alpha Centauri system. At a distance of 4.2 light-years, Proxima Centauri is the closest star to Earth after the sun.

[New Latin Proxima Centaurī : Latin proxima, feminine of proximus, nearest; see proximate + Centaurī, genitive of Centaurus, centaur, Centaurus; see centaur.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Prox′i•ma Centau′ri

(ˈprɒk sə mə)
n.

the nearest star to the sun at a distance of 4.3 light-years, part of Alpha Centauri.

[< New Latin: nearest (star) of Centaurus]

Prox·i·ma Centauri

(prŏk′sə-mə)

See under Alpha Centauri.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

Proxima Centauri - the nearest star to the sun; distance: 4.3 light years

Proxima

Centaurus, Centaur - a conspicuous constellation in the southern hemisphere near the Southern Cross

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References in periodicals archive ?

Astronomers have been exploring the Proxima Centauri and the Trappist planets, which all have similar masses to Earth and some are placed in habitable zones.A

'Glowing' Organisms May Exist Across Universe

In 2016, astronomers found a rocky exoplanet named Proxima b -- a potentially habitable world orbiting the active M star Proxima Centauri, Earth's closest star beyond the sun, that might qualify as a target.

Fluorescent glow may reveal hidden life in the cosmos: Study

Other examples include TRAPPIST-1, which hosts a system of seven Earth-size planets, and Proxima Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor, which has one confirmed planet.

TESS Mission Finds Its Smallest Planet Yet

According to the researchers, stars such as Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1 do not have habitable zones due to the high level of ultraviolet radiation that they emit.

Search For Alien Life Narrows With New Study

The nearest Earthlike inhabitable planet is in Proxima Centauri, which is 23 trillion miles away.

Shuttle to Mars bars our path to survival

The book is set in the year Y2.050K as the Energia spacecraft begins its voyage to Proxima Centauri. As it travels, humanity progresses and regresses in leaps and bounds.

Book presents a new look at the future

In 1915, R T A lnnes discovered this star's dim companion, Proxima Centauri, which turned out to be even closer.

Stars and constellations

With a mass at least 1.35 times that of Earth, Ross 128b is the second-closest, potentially Earth-size planet within the habitable zone of its star, after Proxima Centauri b.

Ross 128b Orbits Quiet Nearby Star

Space weather emitted by Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our sun, may make that system rather inhospitable to life after all.

Powerful flare from star Proxima Centauri detected with ALMA

A conventional rocket would take 120,000 years to reach Proxima b, which orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri.

We'll reach planets to colonise in 100 years; Hawking's SOS prediction

Pereira also sees Air Force cooperation with commercial companies developing space flight technologies as a benefit to both, from developing suborbital space planes, manned capsules and space waypoints, or "hotels", to projects as ambitious as Breakthrough Starshot, a proposed mission to send a microchip all the way to Proxima B, an exo-planet orbiting the star Proxima Centauri, and transmit data back to Earth.

HIGHER GROUND

The exoplanet Proxima b was discovered at our cosmic doorstep, orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our sun.