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Time-Lapse Animation of Proxima Centauri’s Proper Motion

This animation is assembled from 10 years of observations of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our Sun at 4.2 light-years. Proxima has a relatively large proper motion compared to that of more distant background stars. It moves 3.85 arcseconds per year across the sky, which is the angular size of a nickel located 1.5 miles away. The astrometric data used for this visualization were collected between 2000 to 2010 at The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), located in northern Chile.
  • Release Date
    June 3, 2013
  • Science Release
    Rare Stellar Alignment Offers Opportunity to Hunt for Planets
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, A. Riedel and T. Henry (RECONS/SMARTS), and G. Bacon (STScI)

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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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