By: Cassidy Osborne. Proxima means closest because it is the star closest to the sun. Proxima is about 23 trillion miles away from Earth.

By: Cassidy Osborne

What does Proxima mean?

Proxima means closest because it is the star closest to the sun. Proxima is about 23 trillion miles away from Earth.

http://www.windows2universe.org/the_universe/Proxima.html

What type of star is Proxima?

Well Proxima is a very important star and it is a “red giant” with a surface temperature of 3330K. What is a red giant?

A red giant is a star that expands and cools once it runs out of hydrogen fuel.

These stars are not as red to our eyes as they are orange.  Red

Gianthttp://foxd3sign.deviantart.com/art/RED-GIANT-001-164580656

How far is Proxima away from us?

Proxima is about 4.2 light years away from the sun.

What is a light year?

A light year is a unit of length equal to the distance that light travels

through space in one year.http://www.clarkplanetarium.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sun-prox-cent_4501.jpg

How big is Proxima?

It is 0.07 times the sun's radius. If you put Proxima at the location of our sun, you could just barely make out the disk.

A little bigger in volume than Jupiter. It emits 1/17,000 the luminosity of our Sun.http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1440&bih=809&tb

m=isch&tbnid=uybTzvdgpbA7OM:&imgrefurl=http://dotdotdot.ru/img/&docid=4lcN5FgllDoirM&imgurl=http://dotdotdot.ru/img/Sun-Proxima-Jupiter.jpg&w=500&h=375&ei=heKVT5XSJ-imiQLVmK3rCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=185&vpy=301&dur=1471&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=149&ty=116&sig=103943173353807169362&page=1&tbnh=142&tbnw=189&start=0&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0,i:81

How bright do you think Proxima is?

Proxima is about 18,000 times fainter than the sun.

http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/jh/earth/stars/lesson1/stars01d.html

http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/jh/earth/stars/lesson1/stars01d.html

What is the apparent magnitude?

The apparent magnitude of Proxima is 11.05.

Do you know what apparent magnitude is?

Apparent magnitude is its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth.

http://space.about.com/od/stars/p/proximacentauri.htm

What is the absolute magnitude of Proxima?

The absolute magnitude of Proxima is about 15.5. That is dimmer compared to the Sun’s…the Sun’s absolute magnitude is 4.83.

What is absolute magnitude?

Absolute magnitude is also known as the brightness of the stars.http://space.about.com/od/stars/

p/proximacentauri.htm

What constellation is Proxima in?

Proxima is located in the constellation  Centaurus

http://mail.colonial.net/~hkaiter/starweb0809/SECTION2/andrewweb2B/andrewweb2.html

Video On Centaurus

Facts about Centaurus 

Centaurus is a Centaur, they are half man-half horse!

Centaurus faces east because he defending himself against Lupus the goat another constellation nearby!

Centaurus is known as a “myth” constellation. It’s the 9th largest constellation in the sky Proxima is the 3rd star in Centaurus Contains 2 of the brightest stars (Alpha Centauri

and Beta Centauri) It contains 11 stars

http://mail.colonial.net/~hkaiter/starweb0809/SECTION2/andrewweb2B/andrewweb2.html

Facts Continued…..

Centaurus is part of the Hercules family

It has its own meteor shower Found in Northern Hemisphere in the

springFound in the Southern Hemisphere in

the autumn

What is the “myth” about Centaurus?

Centaurus was thought by the Greeks to be a head and torso of a man and the body of a horse.

Greek mythology says that Centaurs were the only monsters that could do good deeds.

Also according to the myth, he helped teach people how to read in the sky!

Centaurus constellation has a picture of him in the sky to guide a group of sailors called the "Argonots".

This is what the Greeks believed

Centaurs looked like.

http://mail.colonial.net/~hkaiter/starweb0809/SECTION2/andrewweb2B/andrewweb2.html

Where is Proxima in the constellation Centaurus?

http://www.rasnz.org.nz/Stars/Centaurus.htm

When to view Centaurus?

Centaurus is never in the sky viewed from middle northern latitudes (around 40 degrees). As you travel south on the Earth's surface and pass below the equator, you will definitely see it from time to time.

The End:)