Proxima Centauri compared to the Sun

Closest star to the Sun, a small dim red dwarf, too faint to see without a telescope.

How big is Proxima Centauri compared to the Sun?

Proxima Centauri is roughly one sixth as wide as the Sun.

Proxima Centauri has roughly one eighth the mass of the Sun.

Proxima Centauri has roughly 1/273 the volume of the Sun.

Proxima Centauri’s surface is 2,719 °C. The Sun’s surface is 5,499 °C.

You see Proxima Centauri as it was 4.246 years ago.

Why it stands out: Too faint to see without a telescope despite being our nearest stellar neighbour.
How much light it gives off: 0.001567 solar luminosities.
What it is: A small, cool red dwarf with an eighth of the Sun’s mass, which flares violently.
How far away it is: A tenth of a light-year nearer than Alpha Centauri A and B, the pair it orbits.; How we know: Distance measured by parallax: photographing the star from opposite sides of Earth’s orbit six months apart. Rung 5 of the cosmic ladder — the distance to nearby stars

The numbers