What is Proxima Centauri?
[[File:Position from Proxima Centauri.png|thumb|right|300px|Position from Proxima Centauri.]] '''Proxima Centauri''' is a [[red dwarf]] [[star]] that is likely a part of the [[Alpha Centauri]] [[star system]] and is the [[List of nearest stars|closest star]] to the [[Sun]] at a distance of {{convert|4.22|ly|km mi}}. It is in the [[constellation]] of [[Centaurus]]. Proxima Centauri was found to share the same [[proper motion]] as Alpha Centauri in 1915 by [[Robert Innes]] while he was Director of the [[Union Observatory]] in [[Johannesburg]], [[South Africa]]. In 1951, [[Harlow Shapley]] said that Proxima Centauri was a [[flare star]]. Recorded photographs showed that the star became measurably brighter about 8% of the time, making it the most active flare star then found. == Characteristics == [[File:Alpha Centauri relative sizes.svg|right|thumb|320px|The size of Proxima Centauri (right) compared to its nearest neighbors.]] Red dwarfs are usually far too faint to be seen with the [[naked eye]], that means without a [[telescope]]. Proxima Centauri has an [[apparent magnitude]] of 11 while its [[absolute magnitude]] is a very dim 15.5. Even from [[Alpha Centauri]] A or B, Proxima would only be seen as a 5th magnitude star. Proxima Centauri has been the closest star to the Sun for about the last 32,000 years. [[Barnard's Star]] will make its closest approach to the Sun around AD 11,700, when it approaches to within about 3.8 light-years.<ref>{{cite journal | last=García-Sánchez | first=J. | bibcode = 2001A&A...379..634G | title=Stellar encounters with the solar system | journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics | volume=379 | page=642 | year=2001 | issue=2 | doi=10.1051/0004-6361:20011330| s2cid=52952019 }}</ref> However, at that time, it will ''not'' be the nearest star, since Proxima Centauri will then have moved even closer to the Sun.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Matthews R.A.J. | display-authors = etal| title=The close approach of stars in the solar neighborhood | journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical S