List of Nearest Stars

There are currently 63 stars contained in the 53 stellar systems within 5.0 parsecs (16.3 light-years) of the Solar System. 50 of those stars are red dwarfs; the remaining 13 stars are more massive with the largest of them being Sirius (the brightest star in the night sky). Scientists have also identified 11 brown dwarfs (objects not quite massive enough to fuse hydrogen), and four white dwarfs (extremely dense collapsed cores that remain after stars such as our Sun have exhausted all fusable hydrogen in their core and have shed slowly their outer layers).