Out to the Stars

The sun is the nearest star. It seems so very much bigger and brighter than all the others only because it is so much closer. Other than the sun, the nearest star is to be found in a constellation called The Centaur. Unfortunately, if we live in the northern part of the world, we cannot see this constellation, as it lies in the southern hemisphere of the sky. The name of the star is Proxima Centauri.

Even Proxima Centauri is separated from us by many millions of millions of miles. The swiftest traveller we know is a ray of light. But light, speeding at one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second, takes over four years to reach us from this star. It would be a very long journey, even if our space-craft could travel at the speed of light.

Most of the stars we see in the heavens are far more distant. The brightest one in the whole sky is called Sirius, the Dog Star, and it is also nearer than most. Its light takes just over eight years to travel to the earth.

Some other stars are so far away that the light rays must travel for many centuries across the vast space which separates them from us. No manned space-craft from earth is ever likely to travel so far or so fast. Oddly enough, however, it would take very little more energy to send a space-craft to a star than it would to one of the planets.