Proxima Centauri
Our sun's nearest neighbour is Proxima Centauri, a
tiny Red Dwarf star some 4.22 lightyears away from us, third member of
the Alpha Centauri triple system. With only 10% of the sun's mass and 0.006%
of its luminosity, Proxima is a bad candidate for harbouring life. If this
small star has planets, most of them will be as dark and cold as the rest
of the universe. But very close to the star, between 0.05 and 0.1 AU, the
mean temperature will be above zero. On such a planet the rotation would
be locked by the tidal forces of the star. A glowing fireball would hang
forever on the same spot in the sky, never changing for the next 100 billion
years - except for the sporadic flares, which double or triple the star's
light within minutes.
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