Proxima Centauri - barely a real star

This is a colourful rendering of the basic Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for stars. Very-low-mass stars (also known as "M dwarfs") are faint and cool and are located to the lower right of the diagonal line (the "main sequence") on which most stars lie and which corresponds to where (and when) stars burn hydrogen into helium. The present location of the Sun is also indicated.