The nearby red dwarf, which has a brightness of 7.49 mag, is located at a distance of 8.1 light-years and is our fourth closest star after the Alpha Centauri system, Barnard's Star from Ophiuchus, and Wolf 359 from Leo. It has the 8th largest known proper motion - it moves across the sky by 4.78" per year. This red dwarf has an absolute magnitude of +10.5, which corresponds to a luminosity of 0.0048 times that of the Sun. Lalande 21185 has a companion, but it has never been visually observed.