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Our interstellar neighbors: The closest galaxy to the sun is actually...?
In the vast universe, the galaxy closest to the sun has aroused great interest among astronomers. Currently, 131 galaxies have been discovered among the stars, white dwarfs, brown dwarfs and sub-brown dwarfs within 20 light years of us. Such celestial bodies not only expand our understanding of the interstellar environment, but also make people think about the vastness and mystery of the universe.
Of the 131 objects, only 22 are bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, making close observations possible.
The 131 objects were classified into 94 star systems, most of which were main sequence stars, including 80 red dwarfs and 23 more luminous stars. In addition to these, there are 6 white dwarfs (stars that have exhausted all their fusible hydrogen), 21 brown dwarfs, and 1 sub-brown dwarf, WISE 0855−0714, which may be a rogue planet. The nearest star system to us is the Alpha Centauri system, and Proxima Centauri in it is the nearest star, only 4.2465 light-years away from Earth.
The brightest, most massive and most luminous star is Sirius A, which is also the brightest star in Earth's night sky.
Of these closest stars, the hottest is the white dwarf Sirius B in the Sirius system, while the largest object within 20 light-years is Beek's star. The Solar System and these stars or dwarfs are currently located in the Local Interstellar Cloud, which is about 30 light-years wide. This cloud itself is hidden in a cavity about 300 light-years away, the Local White Pile, which contains the Ursa Major and the Sea of the Milky Way. Yun Star Cluster and other constellations.
Astronomers use a method called parallax to determine the distances to the stars around us. They measured the change in how a star appears relative to the background object as it orbits the Earth around the Sun as parallax, which gave them a more accurate idea of the distance from the Sun. With the advancement of astronomical telescopes, scientists predict that in the next 15 million years, 694 stars will approach the solar system, 26 of which are expected to be within 1 light-year.
The closest predicted star to the Sun is the low-mass orange dwarf star Gliese 710, which is expected to pass near the Sun in 1.29 million years at a distance of about 0.1696 light-years.
During the long-term interstellar evolution, the positions of stars relative to each other are constantly changing, so the past and future close approaches to stars will inevitably attract human attention. Through precise parallax and total rotation measurements, scientists are able to make predictions about future stellar approaches. Although these predictions may face cumulative errors over longer periods of time, Gliese 710 was the first star predicted to be close to the Sun, first observed in 1999 and more precisely measured with Gaia observations.
These stars and their dynamics not only laid the foundation for the development of astronomy, but also undoubtedly raised more questions, that is: how many unknown neighbors are hidden in the universe waiting for us to explore?
