Debbie Wood, age 11, of Fredericton,. N.B., for her question:

How far away is the nearest star in miles?

The nearest star to the earth, of course, is the sun and the sun is 93 million miles away from us. The nearest star to the sun is much, much further away, The astronomers estimate this distance in light years and one light year is equal to 5.88 million, million miles. In round numbers that is almost six, followed by twelve zeros.

The star nearest to our sun is in the constellation Centaurus which is seen in the sky south of the equator. This starry neighbor is 4.3 light years, or roughly 26 million, million miles away from the sun and the Solar System. If the sun were no bigger than the dot on this letter i, its nearest neighbor would be a similar dot some five miles distant,