User:Exoplanetaryscience/neareststars/Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri is a small low-mass red dwarf, which is the nearest star to the Sun at $4.243$ Light-years. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is a distant companion to the trinary system Alpha Centauri. Proxima Centauri is roughly $8,700$ AU from Alpha Centauri AB, and takes $547,000$ years to orbit the pair.

Timeline

 * 1915 - Robert Innes discovers Proxima Centauri with a common proper motion to Alpha Centauri
 * 1917 - Joan Voûte mmeasured Proxima Centauri's parallax as $755$ milliarcseconds
 * 1928 - Harols Alden measures Proxima Centauri's parallax as roughly $783$ milliarcseconds, the first well-constrained measure of its distance
 * 1951 - Harlow Shapley announces Proxima Centauri as a flare star
 * 2013 - Proxima b is first discovered through radial velocity variations
 * 2016 - Proxima b is announced
 * 2017 - Proxima Centauri is confirmed to be orbiting Alpha Centauri with an orbital period of 547,000 years.

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Photometry
Wavelengths given in nanometers.