Your eyes are seeing a star's past.

追加: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Look up at the night sky.

[00:00:01]>> [music] >> That star's light left 4 years ago. It's Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to [music] you beyond our sun, and it's 4 trillion miles away. That distance means it's [music] light, traveling at 186,000 miles every second, still takes more than 4 years to reach your eyes. So, when you glimpse Proxima Centauri, [music] you're not seeing it as it is right now. You're seeing it as it was.

[00:00:23]That light you see is an image of its past [music] self, traveling across space for 4 years just to arrive at your retina.

[00:00:29]>> [music] >> And Proxima Centauri isn't just a distant point of light. It's orbited by Proxima b, an actual Earth-like world [music] that might be holding life.