The resulting distance a between Earth and Wolf 359 turns out to be roughly 531,000 AU. At present there are no known companion bodies orbiting Wolf 359. These photographs of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 stars that are well-known to amateur astronomers and science fiction aficionados alike employ the largest distance between viewpoints ever achieved in 180 years of stereoscopy," said May. 1 reference. a) Describe in detail, with the aid of a diagram if necessary, how this parallax angle is measured. How did Starfleet replace 39 ships in a year? His only company on board the station are stern mission chief Minkowski . eventAction: 'view' Conversion: 5.8786x . The catalogue includes 915 known stars in the solar neighbourhood, within 65 light years (20 parsecs) of the Sun. At a distance of approximately 7.8 light years from Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 13.5 and can only be seen with a large telescope. Keeping in mind that the speed of light is , and that in 1 year there are 365 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds = , the distance between Wolf-359 and Earth is . The brown dwarfs Luhman 16 and WISE 08550714 are also closer. Unless I'm mistaken it should be divided by 3600 seconds, not 360 hours. Located in the constellation Sagittarius, it is actually a close neighbor of Barnard's star. Millis, John P., Ph.D. (2020, August 28). 5.1 ; Leo . Yes, it's a star and a very nice one at that. 4. Wolf 359 exhibited hundreds of flares in the K2 data, each more energetic than the Sun's Carrington flare, the . Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Why did the Federation gather at Wolf 359 to stop the Borg from reaching Earth? Think about the distance from the Earth to Pluto. }) Wolf 359 was the first star other than the Sun to have the emission lines from its stellar corona observed from a ground-based telescope. Even at high warp it is hours of travel. The celestial hemisphere is equivalent to the hemispheres on Earth. - The distance of Wolf-359 from Earth is instead 7.795 light years. These include Messier 65, Messier 66 and NGC 3628 in the Leo Triplet (M65 Group), and Messier 95, Messier 96 and Messier 105 in the Leo I Group (M96 Group). The star cannot be seen by the naked eye, you need a telescope to see it. It was also the site where Captain Benjamin Sisko lost his wife during the battle. The Orbital Period, or to say it another way, the planets year is 2.68687 days or 0.01 Earth Years. Wolf 359 is located in the Milky Way galaxy, and this is the galaxy that you reside in. The Sun's radius is 695,800km, therefore, the star's radius is an estimated 111,328.km. Sirius is actually a binary star system containing Sirius A and Sirius B and lies 8.58 light-years from Earth in the constellation Canis Major. That's true. It should not be taken as though the star is moving closer or . 359 light-years. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Calculate how many miles away it is. Referring to this site, warp 9.9 is 3,053 times the speed of light. Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the Sun; only the Alpha Centauri system (including Proxima Centauri), Barnard's Star, and the brown dwarfs Luhman 16 (WISE 1049-5319 . The images show the two sitting in different parts of the sky than they do from our point of view on Earth.According to NASA, on April 22-23, the spacecraft turned its long-range telescopic camera to the pair of stars, showing just how they appear in different places than we see from Earth. The radius of 0.16 solar radii was determined by a 1990 study that combined optical and infrared photometry of red and orange dwarfs, including Wolf 359. Located in the constellation Aquila, VB 10 has a mass of about 0.075 solar masses and shines with only 0.0004 solar luminosities. And that has allowed us to do something that had never been accomplished before to see the nearest stars visibly displaced on the sky from the positions we see them on Earth, said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, in a statement. Barnard's Star Distance from Earth. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. - }); Speeding through interstellar space, from its unique vantage point of over 4 billion miles from Earth, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back pictures of the sky from so far away that some stars appear to be in different positions than what we would see from Earth. Located in the constellation Ursa Major, Lalande 21185 is a faint red dwarf that, like many of the stars in this list, is too dim to be seen with the naked eye. if(document.querySelector("#adunit")){ That's because Wolf 359 is a faint red dwarf star. [16] The surface has a magnetic field that is stronger than the average magnetic field on the Sun. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. [35][36] Radial velocity measurements of this star using the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSPEC) instrument at the Keck II observatory have not revealed any variations that might otherwise indicate the presence of an orbiting companion. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/closest-stars-to-earth-3073628. Main article: Battle of Wolf 359 The Wolf system was the site of the first large-scale engagement between Starfleet and the Borg.In early 2367, a fleet of at least forty ships, under the command of Admiral J.P. Hanson, moved to intercept a Borg cube, en route to Earth, at Wolf 359.The Federation fleet made their stand there and engaged the cube . Lemmon Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona, operated remotely by John F. Kielkopf (University of Louisville) and Karen A. Collins (Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). Navigators have used measurements of the stars throughout history to establish their position on Earth. At the same distance from earth as Sol, it would be necessary to use a telescope to see its shape. 1 light year is the distance covered by the light in 1 year. The timing accounts for New Horizons being nearly three light hours closer to Proxima Centauri than Earth when the images were taken. A name is preferred, even if it's a random made-up one by yourself. The study gave the stellar classification M6.5e for the star. Which one was it and why did it survive? (Reference book: Spaceflight Chronology) The Wolf 359 system was the site of a major battle between the United Federation of Planets and the Borg. if(document.querySelector("#google_image_div")){ Understanding its planetary system would give more clues to how such worlds form and evolve around older stars. It looks pretty dim to observers. Back to Wolf 359, 7.6 light years is approximately 7.2e13 km. 4.2421. [50] The closest stellar neighbor to Wolf 359 is the red dwarf Ross 128 at 3.79ly (1.16pc) away. 1.40), Algieba (Gamma Leo, mag. Wolf 359 is the fifth closest star system to the Sun at a distance of 7.78 light years. document.querySelector("#ads").addEventListener('click',function(){ Previous searches using ground-based, photographic astrometry . How do I align things in the following tabular environment? Since it has less than 0.25 solar masses, it will never become a red giant. Even though they would not appear close in the sky if they were visible, the two red dwarfs are separated by only 3.79 light years, which is less than the distance from the Sun to Proxima Centauri (4.2465 light years). ThoughtCo. In film and television, Wolf 359 was memorably used in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the site of a battle between the Federation and the Borg, and in the episode Wolf 359 (1964) of The Outer Limits. It's thought that Proxima Centauri b receives approximately the same amount of solar energy as Earth does from our Sun. The absence of lithium indicates that the element must have been used up by the fusion in the stars core and that the star is at least 100 million years old. Discovered by the German astronomer Max Wolf in 1917 the star has a distance of approximately 7.8 light years from the earth and can be seen with the help of a large telescope. 4.0 . Proxima Centauri . [Hint: how is parallax angle related to distance.] }); The Sun (left) is six times wider than Wolf 359 (middle, actually an image of the Sun in ultraviolet shrunk to the right scale), which is 60% wider than Jupiter (right). 7.86 0.03 light years (2.409 0.009 parsecs), Wolf 359, CN Leonis, CN Leo, GJ 406, GCTP 2553, LTT 12923, NLTT 25782, LHS 36, LFT 750, G 045-020, CSV 6806, EUVE J1056+07.0, FBS 1054+073, GSC 00261-00377, PLX 2553.00, RBS 922, JP11 5139, JP11 5138, JP11 5140, JP11 5141, 2MASS J10562886+0700527, UBV 10028, USNO 836, USNO 612, WISEA J105626.19+070025.0. Most Trekkies know the name of this star and what it means to the Trekiverse. Working backwards that would be 19.6 arcsecs. Wolf 359 lies near the ecliptic, south of the imaginary line connecting the bright Regulus and Denebola in Leo. Wolf 359 Star type g M5.8 Ve Distance from Earth g 7.797 ly Star Service No. 7.7825. What is the bloodiest war in the Star Trek universe involving the UFP? ga('ads.send', { 2. Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. },false) This prevents the buildup of helium in the stellar cores and prolongs the period of fusion, allowing low-mass red dwarfs to maintain the same spectral type and luminosity for trillions of years before they run out of fuel. Wolf 359 - posted in Experienced Deep Sky Imaging: Wolf 359 is one of the closest stars to our sun and also one of the smallest and least luminous stars known (other than brown dwarfs, which are not really stars). }); It is not part of the Leo constellation outline but is within the borders of the constellation. 5. What is the purpose of non-series Shimano components? The total distance is about 80 light years. Minimising the environmental effects of my dyson brain. In the Battle of Wolf 359, one ship survives. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), window.adsContainer = {"position2":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Above_Next_Rel","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position3":{"code":"Article_Mobile_300x250_ATF_Rel","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position4":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle_Rel","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position5":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle1_Rel","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position6":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle2_Rel","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position7":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle3_Rel","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position8":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle4_Rel","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position9":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle5_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250},"position10":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle6_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250},"position11":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle7_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250},"position12":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle8_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250},"position13":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle9_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250},"position14":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle10_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250},"position15":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle11_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250},"position16":{"code":"Article_Mobile_Middle12_Rel","max_width":320,"max_height":250}} What is the nearest star to Earth you ask? eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), The next closest star is a faint red dwarf about 5.96 light-years from Earth. The star Wolf 359 has a parallax angle of 0.419 arcseconds. Neither planet orbits in the stars habitable zone, which is between 0.024 and 0.052 astronomical units from the star. Wolf 359 is a star, a red dwarf, 7.8 light years from Earth. }); Wolf 359 (Distance from Earth: 7.7825 LY) Wolf 359 is the fourth closest star from Earth at the distance of about 7.7825 light years. Is it suspicious or odd to stand by the gate of a GA airport watching the planes? Once the Borg had destroyed the fleet, it should have taken them almost no time to reach Earth. ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); familiar stars using the 3-dimensional distance formula in Cartesian coordinates. (NASA/JHUAPL) Located in the constellation Leo, Wolf 359 is an M-type (red dwarf) star that is roughly 7.9 light-years from Earth. Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the Sun; only the Alpha Centauri system (including Proxima Centauri), Barnard's Star, and the brown dwarfs Luhman 16 (WISE 1049-5319 . Lalande 21185 is the brightest red dwarf in the northern sky, but still invisible to the unaided eye with an apparent magnitude of 7.520. Ceti-Epsilon Eridani- 40 Eridani-Sirius-Procyon-Wolf 359-Alpha Centauri -Sun. [22] In 1969, a brief flare in the luminosity of Wolf 359 was observed, linking it to the class of variable stars known as flare stars. Barnard's Star. Wolf 359 (also known as CN Leonis) is a star, located about 2.4 parsecs (7.8 light-years) from Earth, where it is visible in the constellation of Leo. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft travels at nearly 60,000 km/h, the fastest a spacecraft has ever traveled in the Solar System. hitType: 'event', [17] If these planets are confirmed, the setup of the system would be similar to but more extreme than that of nearby red dwarf Proxima Centauri, both having a close-in low-mass planet and a farther out higher-mass planet. Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. Closest Stars to Earth. Wolf 359. How did Laura the drone end up in the Delta Quadrant? Either that or someone bumped up the distance in Wikipedia. } Interestingly enough, it appears that Proxima may have a rocky planet! Leo is also known for its several bright galaxies. Scientists have long used this parallax effect implying how a star appears to shift against its background when seen from different locations to measure distances to stars. That's because it may well have planets orbiting it. The only stars that are closer to earth than Wolf 359 are those in the Alpha Centauri system and Barnards star. } The constellations brightest star Regulus marks the celestial Lions heart, the stars of the Sickle outline the mane, Zosma and Chertan the rump, and Denebola the tail. Now, we learn in TNG 'Q Who' that the Borg Cube was capable of keeping up with the Enterprise-D at Warp 9.65 (Source). Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. 2.08), Denebola (Beta Leo, mag. Our own Sun is the brightest star and therefore has the lowest of all magnitudes, -26.74. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. [3] Located about 7.8 light years from earth, it is much smaller than earth's star, Sol, at about 16% of Sol's diameter. To compare different stars' actual brightness, you would best use Absolute rather than Apparent Magnitude. The galactic orbit has an eccentricity of 0.156, and the star can travel as far as 444 light-years (136pc) away from the galactic plane. [6] This low rate of rotation may have been caused by loss of angular momentum through a stellar wind. The Sun and its planets live in a somewhat isolated part of the Milky Way, with only three stars closer than five light-years. All messages will be reviewed before being displayed. The study also found absorption lines of titanium(II) oxide (TiO). Wolf 359 podcast on demand - Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Rotating your screen maybe sufficient to see the Stellar values for comparison. hitType: 'event', The advantage of these tandem observations is that the New Horizons probe is 46 times the Earth-Sun . gads_event = event; Our . When a scientist recreates the environment of a distant planet, its accelerated rate of evolution suggests a shocking future for mankind. [26] The mean magnetic field at the surface of Wolf 359 has a strength of about 2.2kG (0.22 teslas), but this varies significantly on time scales as short as six hours. I also think StarTrek.com may be under reporting the distance from Wolf 359 to Earth a little. Objects with less than 0.08 solar masses are known as brown dwarfs and they cannot trigger sustained nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium. Here's a full list of the 44 of the closest stars to Earth: Star Name. Sirius (binary . An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than the the Sun.. He's stuck on a scientific survey mission of indeterminate length, 7.8 light years from Earth. Distance (light years . "The professional and amateur astronomy communities had been waiting to try this, and were very excited to make a little space exploration history. This site claims that the Cube's maximum warp speed is warp 9.98. Pixels on the camera's grid . Wolf 359 has a relatively high flare rate and the strength of its magnetic field varies with periods as short as six hours. Still, astronomers will keep checking on possible worlds and their habitability for life. Wolf 359 is a flare star, a variable star of the UV Ceti type that can undergo sudden increases in brightness across the spectrum. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Wolf 359 is the fifth nearest star to the Sun, after Proxima Centauri, Toliman and Rigil Kentaurus in the Alpha Centauri system, and the red dwarf Gliese 699, also known as Barnards Star. Wolf 359 was given the variable star designation CN Leonis after the first detection of a flare from the star in 1969, which led to its classification as a flare star. [18] He listed this star as entry number 359, and the star has since been referred to as Wolf 359 in reference to Max Wolf's catalogue. Located in the constellation Cetus, this binary star system is 8.73 light-years from Earth. The distance to the star Wolf 359 = 2,409 0.009 pc, ie 7.86 light-years (+/-0.03 ly) Remarks: On April 22, 2020, we made observations with the ATEO-1 remote telescope in tandem with the New Horizons space probe at nearby star Wolf 359. [33], A search of this star by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed no stellar companions. This trinary system of three dwarf stars, about 16 light-years from Earth, could play host to exoplanets; none have been detected there so far. Can Martian regolith be easily melted with microwaves? Nearest stars to the Sun, image: Wikimedia Commons/Nsae Comp (CC BY-SA 4.0). Polaris . Comments may be merged or altered slightly, such as if it contains an email or website address. Wolf 359 is located approximately 2.4 parsecs or 7.7 light years from the Earth. Leo is one of the several constellations that look like the animals they represent. Since the Earth-Sun distance is 15 meters in the Voyage model, a basketball-size Earth would require an Earth-Sun distance of about 3 kilometers, and a Sun-Pluto distance of about 120 kilometers.) Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. - Distance from Sol: 7.856 ly (J2000) - Constellation: Leo: Star: Names: Akela, CN Leonis, Gliese 406 (GJ 406), Wolf 359 Physical characteristics: - Mass: 0.110 x Sol . NASA probe captures images of our nearest stars appearing to be in different positions than seen from Earth. It comprises the closest set of stars, even if their light does take just over four years to reach us. . Star Names; Distance to Wolf 359. Ambassador class - Heavy Cruiser - Three Ambassador class ships: USS Kadosca, USS Yamaguchi and USS Galahand were present at the battle of Wolf 359. Does ZnSO4 + H2 at high pressure reverses to Zn + H2SO4? Guaranteed time observations Data Release 1 (2016-2020)", The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight, Celestial objects within 510 light-years, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolf_359&oldid=1140844104, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 01:42. Wolf 359 is located in the constellation Leo and has a magnitude of . If you give an email address, you may receive an email notifying you when someone else has added a comment to the same page. The human eye cannot detect these shifts. MEAWW brings you the best content from its global team of This is 37 minutes later than the New Horizons image, relative to Wolf 359 time. It was recorded as one of the most destructive battles in Federation history prior to the Dominion War. However, we need to convert this number into km. [6][48] When translated into the galactic coordinate system, this motion corresponds to a space velocity of (U, V, W) = (26, 44, 18) km/s. This star also has an intriguing place in science fiction. This red dwarf is one of the nearest star to our solar system other than . For the fictional Star Trek battle, see, Wolf 359 is shown near the ecliptic in the southern region of, "Gaia Early Data Release 3: Summary of the contents and survey properties", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, "A search for faint companions to nearby stars using the wide field planetary camera 2", "List of the nearest 100 stellar systems", "The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. Interstellar navigators can do the same to establish their position in the galaxy, using the technique that New Horizons has demonstrated for the first time. Only objects with a magnitude of 6.5 or less can be seen on a clear night. It's actually slightly closer to Earth at 4.24 light-years away. However, because Proxima Centauri is a smaller and cooler red dwarf type star, the planet's orbit is within the habitable zone. This article is about the star. About how long would it take such a spacecraft to travel to Wolf 359? In 2001, Wolf 359 became the first star other than the Sun to have the spectrum of its corona observed from a ground-based telescope. } Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. How do you ensure that a red herring doesn't violate Chekhov's gun? (i) Describe how this parallax angle is measured. The magnitude assumes nothing is between the object and the viewer, such as dust clouds. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. In the email will be a link to unsubscribe to further notifications. Is it plausible for constructed languages to be used to affect thought and control or mold people towards desired outcomes? Sun. . [30] For comparison, the equatorial radius of the planet Jupiter is 71,492km, which is 73% as large as Wolf 359's. However, the probe will most likely be dead and silent as it flies by. Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Other relatively bright galaxies in the constellation include the elliptical galaxy NGC 3842, the brightest member of the Leo Cluster of galaxies, the Silverado Galaxy (NGC 3370), a spiral galaxy 98 million light years away, NGC 3226 and NGC 3227, an interacting pair about 77 million light years away, and the Cosmic Horseshoe, a gravitationally lensed system of two galaxies located 5.2 and 10.3 gigalight years away, discovered in 2007. Kepler's extended mission, K2, observed Wolf 359 for over 80 days with high-precision 1-minute photometry in 2017. In my own calculations, in which I tried to account for uncertainties in all the measurements, I ended up with . Wolf 359 hosts two candidate planets, both discovered in 2019 using the radial velocity method. 6. [17][13], Wolf 359 first came to the attention of astronomers because of the relatively high rate of transverse motion against the background, known as the proper motion. though Polaris and HD 209458 are close in the sky as viewed from Earth (they are in Ursa Minor and Pegasus . The brightness of a star depends on its temperature hotter stars emit more light . Wolf 359 is known by a variety of names. While radio-tracking by NASAs Deep Space Network is far more accurate, its first use is a significant milestone in what may "someday become human exploration of the galaxy," say experts. The Declination (Latitude) is how far north or south the object is compared to the celestial equator and is expressed in degrees. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { Barnard. 3.324), Adhafera (Zeta Leo, mag. Other well-known examples of this variable class in the Suns neighbourhood include Proxima Centauri and Barnards Star, the first and fourth nearest stars to the solar system. it has 2 uncofirmed planet Wolf 359 b and c, Wolf 359 b is a gas giant of 43.9 Earth masses which orbit at a . Located in the constellation Eridanus, this star lies10.52 light-years from Earth. window.googletag.cmd.push(function() { Wolf 359 is a relatively young star with an age of less than a billion years. We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup, Latest Blog Post: Jacks Bad Movies Black Adam (2022). Wolf 359 made its closest approach to the Sun 13,850 years ago, when it came within 7.329 light years (2.247 parsecs). pg.acq.push(function() { Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? Wolf 359 has at least 2 Extrasolar Planets believed to be in orbit around the star. What is perhaps the most famous Star Trek planet was placed by creator Gene Roddenberry in a real star system: 40 Eridani. With Patrick O'Neal, Sara Shane, Peter Haskell, Ben Wright. . Based on the star's spectral type of M6.5 Ve, Wolf 359's colour and type is red main sequence star. 1 (IB) a) The star Wolf 359 has a parallax angle of 0.419 arcsecond. From this position change, and the known size of the Earth's orbit, the distance to the star could be estimated. ga('ads.send', { Even one Borg drone on Earth would have been a crippling blow to the Federation. Launched in 2006, New Horizons will eventually leave the solar system, joining the Voyagers and Pioneers on their paths to the stars. [19], The first parallax measurement of Wolf 359 was reported in 1928 from the Mount Wilson Observatory, yielding an annual shift in the star's position of 0.407 0.009 arcseconds. With an apparent magnitude of 13.54, it is invisible to the unaided eye and can only be seen in larger telescopes. Star Trek.com tells us that the system is 7.6 light years away. The real Wolf 359 is a flare star that modern scientists have determined is a red dwarf, spectral class M6, massing 0.093 of Sol with absolute magnitude +16.56. MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. The Hubble Space Telescope was recently used to search for faint companions about Wolf 359. }); The spectrum showed emission lines of Fe XIII, which is heavily ionized iron that has been stripped of twelve of its electrons. Obviously, the top titleholder on this list is the central star of our solar system: the Sun. Wolf 359 (CN Leonis) is a faint red dwarf located only 7.86 light years away in the constellation Leo. Wolf 359 is on the Ecliptic. eventAction: 'click_ads' All three ships were diverted to . It was the lowest-mass and faintest star known until the discovery of VB 10 in 1944. Which are the Largest Stars in the Universe? Only the Alpha Centauri triple system ( Alpha A, Alpha B & Proxima ) and Barnard's star are known to be closer. Wolf 359 location, image: Torsten Bronger (CC BY-SA 3.0). At a distance of approximately 7.9 light years from Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 13.54 and can only be seen with a large .