Orbital Differences Between Earth and Proxima Centauri b

  • Released Thursday, January 23, 2020
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This data visualization compares the relative distances and speeds of Proxima B's orbit to the Earth's orbit. Proxima B rapidly orbits its sun every 11.2 days.

Proxima Centauri b is the closest exoplanet to Earth. It is only four light years away. It's star is a red dwarf that is much smaller than our Sun. However, it is much closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun. It also orbits around it's star at a much faster rate than Earth.

Earth's orbit around the sun takes 365 days to complete.

Earth's orbit around the sun takes 365 days to complete.

Proxima B's orbit around its star takes 11.2 Earth days to complete.

Background image comparing the relative sizes of our Sun to Proxima B's star. Proxima Centauri's radius is approximately 7 times smaller than our Sun's radius.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, January 23, 2020.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 12:14 AM EST.

Papers used in this visualization

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017arXiv170902051D/abstract