>>... after Alpha Centauri and Barnard's Star
>>
>>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2776229.stm>
>Now we can look forward for the fourth one. :)
Of course, what was previously known as the fourth-closest star system is now displaced to fifth position.
I think it is quite possible that the Alpha Centauri system also becomes displaced to second place (or further) one day. The thing is that an object like a white dwarf or a brown dwarf radiates much, much less light than a star that is still "alive". And if there happens to be a lonely black hole even at a distance of 1 or 2 light-years, it would be still more difficult to discover. (Quite unlikely; since only relatively massive stars can become black holes.)
Hilmar.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
