Proxima Centauri (one of our nearest stars)

Proxima centauri as seen by Humble Telescope

Proxima Centauri, or Alpha Centauri C, is a red dwarf, a small low-mass star, about 4.25 light-years from the Sun in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by the Scottish astronomer Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in South Africa, and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With an apparent magnitude of 11.05, it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye. Proxima Centauri forms a third component of the Alpha Centauri trinary star system(meaning that the stars a three in the Alpha Centauri System), currently with a separation of about 12,950 AU (1.94 trillion km) and an orbital period of 550,000 years. At present Proxima is 2.18° to the southwest of Alpha Centauri. 

In 2016, the European Southern Observatory announced the discovery of Proxima b, a planet orbiting the star at a distance of roughly 0.05 AU (7.5 million km) with an orbital period of approximately 11.2 Earth days. Its estimated mass is at least 1.3 times that of the Earth. The equilibrium temperature of Proxima b is estimated to be within the range of where water could exist as liquid on its surface, thus placing it within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri,  although because Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf and a flare star, whether it could support life is disputed. Previous searches for orbiting companions had ruled out the presence of brown dwarfs and supermassive planets.

The light-year is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances. It is about 9.5 trillion kilometers or 5.9 trillion miles. As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a       light-year is the distance that light travels in vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days). Because it includes the word "year", the term light-year is sometimes misinterpreted as a unit of  time. So you might wanna note that!

The two bright points are the Alpha Centauri system (left) and Beta Centauri (right). The faint red star in the centre of the red circle is Proxima Centauri.

Interstellar travel

 

Because of the star's proximity to Earth, Proxima Centauri has been proposed as a flyby destination for interstellar travel. Proxima currently moves toward Earth at a rate of 22.2 km/s. After 26,700 years, when it will come within 3.11 light-years, it will begin to move farther away

If non-nuclear, conventional propulsion technologies are used, the flight of a spacecraft to a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri would probably require thousands of years. For example, Voyager 1, (the only man-made object out of the solar system) which is now travelling 17 km/s (38,000 mph) relative to the Sun would reach Proxima in 73,775 years(wooo!!!..😱😨!), were the spacecraft travelling in the direction of that star. A slow-moving probe would have only several tens of thousands of years to catch Proxima Centauri near its closest approach, and could end up watching it recede into the distance.
 

Nuclear pulse propulsion might enable such interstellar travel with a trip timescale of a century, inspiring several studies such as Project Orion, Project Daedalus, and Project Longshot.

Project Breakthrough Starshot aims to reach the Alpha Centauri system within the first half of the 21st century, with microprobes travelling at twenty percent of the speed of light propelled by around 100 gigawatts of Earth-based lasers. The probes will perform a fly-by of Proxima Centauri to take photos and collect data of its planet's atmospheric composition. It will take 4.22 years for the information collected to be sent back to Earth.

From Proxima Centauri, the Sun would appear as a bright 0.4-magnitude star in the constellation Cassiopeia.

The Sun as seen from the Alpha Centauri system, using Celestia

 Lets hope that we will ever make it up there.