Stars vary greatly in their distances from Earth. The closest star to us, other than the Sun, is Proxima Centauri, which is about 4.24 light-years away. One light-year is the distance light travels in one year, roughly 9.46 trillion kilometers (5.88 trillion miles)

. This means Proxima Centauri is approximately 40 trillion kilometers (about 25.3 trillion miles) from Earth

. Beyond Proxima Centauri, stars can be located at distances ranging from a few light-years to thousands of light-years away. The visible stars in the night sky typically lie within a few to a few thousand light-years from Earth

. More distant stars can be billions of times farther than the closest stars

. To put it in perspective:

• Proxima Centauri: ~4.24 light-years (~40 trillion km)
• Alpha Centauri system (nearest star system): ~4.37 light-years away
• Most visible stars: from a few light-years up to thousands of light-years
• The farthest stars observed: billions of times farther than the nearest stars

Measuring these vast distances is done using methods like parallax, which relies on observing the apparent shift in a star's position as Earth orbits the Sun, and using standard candles—stars with known luminosity—to estimate farther distances

. In summary, stars are extremely far from Earth, starting at about 4.24 light-years for the nearest star and extending to thousands or even billions of light-years for others