<b>Welcome to the Sun's Neighborhood</b> - This diagram illustrates the locations of the star systems closest to the sun. The year when the distance to each system was determined is listed after the system's name.
<p>NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, found two of the four closest systems: the binary brown dwarf WISE 1049-5319 and the brown dwarf WISE J085510.83-071442.5. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope helped pin down the location of the latter object.
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The closest system to the sun is a trio of stars that consists of Alpha Centauri, a close companion to it and Proxima Centauri.
NASA/Penn State University
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18003">http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18003</a> (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA18003.jpg">image link</a>)