The nearest exoplanet: 4.2 light-years away, roughly Earth-sized, and in the habitable zone. Its red-dwarf star flares hard. Today’s spacecraft would take tens of thousands of years to get there.
ESO/M. Kornmesser · Original image and terms · CC BY 4.0. Web-sized reproduction.
Find it in the south.
How to see it tonight
Proxima b orbits Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf too faint to see without a telescope. What you can find with your eyes is its bright neighbour, Alpha Centauri, close beside it.
Alpha Centauri sits deep in the southern sky, in Centaurus. It is easily visible from the Southern Hemisphere and from low northern latitudes, roughly south of the US Gulf Coast. Most of the Northern Hemisphere never sees it rise.
From the south, look for it in local autumn and winter evenings, when Centaurus climbs well up. It shines as one of the sky’s brightest points, really a close pair of stars blended by distance.
Proxima itself needs a telescope and precise aim to separate from its brighter neighbours. Proxima b has never been photographed. The image above, like every picture of it, is an artist’s concept.
The planet was found by watching Proxima Centauri’s light wobble under its gravity, not by seeing it directly. It orbits every 11 days, just 7 million kilometres out.
What to expect: eyes, binoculars, telescope, photograph
What you actually see changes completely with equipment. Here is each view, honestly.
| View | What you can expect |
|---|---|
| Naked eye | Alpha Centauri, the bright pair Proxima orbits near, is one of the sky’s brightest stars from the south. Proxima itself is not. NASA states plainly that “Proxima Centauri is not visible to the naked eye.” |
| Binoculars | Binoculars can help split the wide double star. Proxima, the faint red dwarf itself, stays out of reach from a light-polluted sky. This is an equipment estimate; results vary with aperture and sky darkness. |
| Telescope | A telescope with precise coordinates can pick out faint Proxima Centauri from its brighter neighbours. Proxima b itself is never resolved this way. Its existence was found from tiny shifts in starlight, not by seeing the planet. |
| Photograph | The image above is an artist’s impression of Proxima b’s surface, not a captured photograph. No telescope has ever imaged the planet directly. ESO credits this illustration to M. Kornmesser. |
What SkyLumi does
Search finds Alpha Centauri and Proxima’s marked position together in Centaurus. Aim the phone at the sky, and the app keeps tracking that direction as you move.
The story panel explains what makes Proxima b notable: a roughly Earth-sized world in its star’s habitable zone, just 4.2 light-years away.
Night Vision keeps your eyes dark-adapted for the rest of Centaurus nearby. No account, no ads. The core sky works offline; the story content needs a connection the first time.
A few things to know.
Can I see Proxima b, or even its star?
No planet has ever been photographed here. Proxima Centauri itself needs a telescope, unlike its neighbour Alpha Centauri, one of the sky’s brightest stars.
Why does the guide point at Alpha Centauri instead?
Because that is the part you can actually find. Alpha Centauri is a bright, easy naked-eye target from the south. Proxima orbits nearby, too faint to pick out without equipment.
Can I see it from the Northern Hemisphere?
Only from low northern latitudes, roughly south of the US Gulf Coast. Most of the Northern Hemisphere never sees Centaurus clear the horizon.
How long would it take to reach Proxima b?
At the speed of today’s fastest spacecraft, tens of thousands of years. It is the nearest known exoplanet, but “nearest” still means an enormous distance.
More in the Sky Library
Sources and image credit
- ESO: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star (eso1629)
- NASA: Proxima Centauri, imaged by Hubble
Image attribution and original terms are linked beneath the image. Use of imagery does not imply endorsement of SkyLumi.