Nearest Stars & Planets

Here’s a table of all known star systems within 15 light years (ly) of our Solar System. I will endeavor to keep this list up to date, so please post a comment here if anything needs to be corrected or added.

There are 41 star systems¹ within a volume of

$V = \frac{4}{3}\pi r^{3} = \frac{4}{3}\pi (15\;ly)^{3} = 14,137\;ly^{3}$

Assuming that these 41 star systems are uniformly distributed within a sphere of radius 15 ly, the average distance from any star to its nearest neighbor is given by

$\bar{d} = r\left [ \frac{\pi }{3n\;\sqrt[]{2}} \right ]^{\frac{1}{3}} = (15\; ly)\left [ \frac{\pi }{3(41)\;\sqrt[]{2}} \right ]^{\frac{1}{3}} = 3.94\;ly$

So, even though it seems that 41 star systems within a distance of 15 ly from our Solar System is a lot, the volume of 14,137 cubic light years is not that small, and the average distance between any star and its nearest neighbor is about 3.94 ly. Our nearest neighbor is Proxima Centauri, which at a distance of 4.24 ly is quite close to the 3.94 ly average distance derived above.

Nearest Stars (within 15 light years)

Star	Distance (ly)	Spectral Type	Constellation	Planets?
Sun	0.00	G2V	zodiacal	Yes
Proxima Centauri	4.24	M5.0V	Centaurus	Yes
Alpha Centauri A & B	4.36	G2V & K0.0V	Centaurus	Unknown
Barnard's Star	5.97	M3.5V	Ophiuchus	Unknown
Luhman 16 A & B	6.59	L8 & T1	Vela	Unknown
WISE 0855-0714	7.26	Y2	Hydra	Unknown
Wolf 359	7.87	M5.5V	Leo	Yes
Lalande 21185	8.29	M2.0V	Ursa Major	Yes
Sirius A & B	8.65	A1V & DA2	Canis Major	Unknown
Luyten 726-8 A & B	8.79	M5.5V & M6.0V	Cetus	Unknown
Ross 154	9.70	M3.5V	Sagittarius	Unknown
Ross 248	10.29	M5.5V	Andromeda	Unknown
Epsilon Eridani	10.48	K2.0V	Eridanus	Yes
Lacaille 9352	10.72	M1.0V	Piscis Austrinus	Yes
Ross 128	11.01	M4.0V	Virgo	Yes
EZ Aquarii A, B, & C	11.27	M5.0VJ	Aquarius	Unknown
61 Cygni A & B	11.40	K5.0V & K7.0V	Cygnus	Unknown
Procyon A & B	11.44	F5IV-V & DQZ	Canis Minor	Unknown
Struve 2398 A & B	11.49	M3.0V & M3.5V	Draco	Yes
Groombridge 34 A & B	11.62	M1.5V & M3.5V	Andromeda	Yes
DX Cancri	11.68	M6.0V	Cancer	Unknown
Epsilon Indi A, B, & C	11.81	K4.0V, T1, & T6	Indus	Yes
Tau Ceti	11.89	G8.5V	Cetus	Yes
Gliese 1061	11.98	M5.0V	Horologium	Yes
YZ Ceti	12.11	M4.0V	Cetus	Yes
Luyten's Star	12.25	M3.5V	Canis Minor	Yes
Teegarden's Star	12.50	M6.5V	Aries	Yes
Kapteyn's Star	12.83	M2.0VI	Pictor	Unknown
Lacaille 8760	12.95	K9.0V	Microscopium	Unknown
SCR 1845-6357 A & B	13.05	M8.5 & T6	Pavo	Unknown
Kruger 60 A & B	13.08	M3.0V & M4.0V	Cepheus	Unknown
DENIS J1048-3956	13.19	M8.5V	Antlia	Unknown
UGPS 0722-05	13.43	T9	Monoceros	Unknown
Ross 614 A & B	13.49	M4.0V & M5.5V	Monoceros	Unknown
Wolf 424 A & B	13.98	M5.0VJ	Virgo	Unknown
Wolf 1061	14.05	M3.5V	Ophiuchus	Yes
van Maanen 2	14.07	DZ7	Pisces	Unknown
Gliese 1	14.17	M1.5V	Sculptor	Unknown
TZ Arietis	14.59	M4.0V	Aries	Yes
Gliese 674	14.84	M2.5V	Ara	Yes
Gliese 687	14.84	M3.0V	Draco	Yes
LHS 292	14.90	M6.5V	Sextans	Unknown

¹ Here we are considering Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri A & B to be one star system.

References
Henry, T.J. 2020, The Nearest Stars in The Observer’s Handbook 2023, ed. J. Edgar, The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, p. 284-288.

How would I go about calculating the average distance between points that are uniformly distributed throughout a sphere? from math

Nearest Stars (within 15 light years)

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