Alpha Centauri is a star system consisting of three stars, with Alpha and Beta Centauri orbiting each other and Proxima Centauri orbiting them at a distance. It is the closest star system to Earth, located 4.2-4.4 light-years away. The system may have planets, but none have been detected yet. Proxima Centauri is a small red dwarf and the closest star to us other than the Sun.
Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to Earth apart from our own. It is a trio of stars: Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri and Proxima Centauri. The former two are often referred to as Centauri A and Centauri B while the latter is Centauri C. Alpha Centauri is a yellowish-white dwarf star with about 10% more mass than our Sun. Beta Centauri is slightly smaller, with about 90% solar mass, and produces less heat, giving off a yellow-orange-white glow. Proxima Centauri is a small red dwarf, orbiting the other two at great distances. This red dwarf is the closest star to us other than the Sun.
The Centauri system gets its name from its location in the constellation Centaurus, the centaur. The entire system is located 4.2 – 4.4 light-years away from Earth. A spacecraft traveling at 10% the speed of light, possibly powered by a nuclear pulse engine, would reach Alpha Centauri in just about 50 years. It is plausible that the system has its own planets, although none have yet been detected.
Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri have an eccentric orbit around each other, coming up to 11 AU (astronomical units or Earth-Sun distances) and separating up to 35 AU. This is comparable to the distance between the Sun and Saturn when it is closest and between the Sun and Pluto when it is farthest. Both stars are five to six billion years old, just like our Sun.
The red dwarf Proxima Centauri, the outcast, weighs only 1/10 the Sun and consequently burns its nuclear fuel much more slowly, meaning it is less luminous and less hot. In fact, the only reason we can observe this red dwarf is that it is so close to our home system. Proxima Centauri orbits Beta and Alpha Centauri at a distance of 11,000 AU, or about 0.21 light-years, which is 1/20 of the distance between the Sun and Alpha Centauri. At first, we weren’t even sure whether Proxima should be considered part of the same star system, but observations have shown that it orbits the binary center and shares approximately the same motion through space as the rest of the star system.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
