Ross 128 is a small, old, remarkably placid red dwarf - and that placidity is the point. Its single known planet gets a little more starlight than Earth, and unlike planets around flare stars such as Proxima, it has not been repeatedly blasted by X-rays for billions of years.
Fly there in 3DRoss 128 is drifting toward us and will become the closest star to the Sun in roughly 71,000 years, taking the title from Proxima Centauri.
| Spectral type | M4 V |
| Surface temperature | 3,192 K |
| Mass | 0.168 solar masses |
| Radius | 0.197 solar radii |
| Luminosity | 0.00362 times the Sun |
| Apparent magnitude | 11.15 |
| Age | about 5 billion years |
| Distance from the Sun | 11.0 light-years (3.4 parsecs) |
| Position (J2000) | RA 176.9350°, Dec 0.8046° |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Planet | Year | Orbit | Radius | Mass | Found |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ross 128 b | 9.87 days | 0.0496 AU | 1.11 R⊕ estimated | 1.4 M⊕ minimum | Radial Velocity, 2017 |
Values are the NASA Exoplanet Archive’s composite parameters. A radius marked estimated comes from a mass–radius relation; a mass marked minimum is M sin i. Planet sizes and colours in the 3D view are renderings: none of these worlds has been photographed as more than a point of light.