The Sun is our nearest star. The distance to the Sun is about eight light minutes. It is not much compared to the four-light-year distance of the second nearest star, Proxima Centauri, one element in a triple star Alpha Centauri.
The Sun was born about five billion years ago when it started its main sequence phase. Fusion reactions deep inside the Sun make life on Earth possible. Although the Sun consumes four million tons of hydrogen fuel every second, it will continue to shine for another five billion years before it will turn into a red giant. At that phase its surface will be far outside the Earth's orbit.
