... Proxima Centauri: The Closest Star . ... Light takes only 4.22 years to reach us from Proxima Centauri. ... For billions of years, massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy have lived spectacular lives. ... Pictured above is a region of sky that was picked because it had, well, nothing: no bright stars, no bright galaxies, and no picturesque nebulas. What could not be avoided, however, were a few stars in our own Galaxy, and many distant galaxies strewn across the universe. ...