31 Impressive Alpha Centauri Facts About The Closest Star System

Alpha Centauri is not a star.

According to NASA, Alpha Centauri is a triple star system rather than a star. The system is rated three stars.

Proxima Centauri(Rigil kentaurus) is the brightest and nearest star to Earth. The other two stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are brighter and constitute a binary system. But they aren't directly next to each other. There is also a doubtful epsilon Centauri.

The Earth is approximately 93 million mi (150 million km) from the sun. According to NASA, Alpha Centauri A and B are around 23 times that distance away. This is little more than the distance between the sun and Uranus.

Proxima Centauri is approximately 24,800 billion mi (39,900 billion km) from Earth. This equates to around 4.22 light-years, which means it would take us 4.22 years to get there if we could travel at the speed of light.

Alpha Centauri A and B are around 4.35 light-years distant from Earth.

Astrocientists propose a spaceship that travels at 20% the speed of light. At that rate, the small spaceships would take around 20 years, or a generation, to reach Alpha Centauri.

Researchers reported in 2012 that Alpha Centauri B has an Earth-sized planet circling it.

The planet seems burnt and stony, although it has almost the same mass as Earth. It orbits Alpha Centauri B at a distance of around 3.6 million mi (6 million km), implying that its surface is coated in molten lava.

The planet, known as Alpha Centauri B, might be proof that another planet lurks in the star system, possibly one that is further away from the stars and can support liquid water on its surface.

The fourth brightest star in the night sky is Alpha Centauri A. It's also a yellow star, like the sun, but it's roughly 25% bigger.

Beta Centauri is a tiny orange alpha Centauri star around the size of the sun. Proxima Centauri C (Rigil Kentaurus) is a red dwarf roughly seven times the size of the sun. It orbits around its host star.

The three stars are somewhat older than the sun, which is roughly 4.6 billion years old, at 4.85 billion years.

Most of the Northern Hemisphere cannot see Alpha Centauri.

In reality, it is not visible to individuals living above 29 degrees north latitude, which is about the same as the cities of Houston and Orlando, Florida.

Southern Hemisphere viewers may easily locate Alpha Centauri by searching for the Southern Cross constellation and then following the horizontal section of the cross to the left until they find the brilliant star pattern.

Where is Alpha Centauri in space?

Our closest nearby star, Alpha Centauri, is only 4.37 light-years away from the Sun. The nearest star system, since it comprises of a binary star pair, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, with a third star, Proxima Centauri, lying even closer at 4.22 light-years away.

• Proxima Centauri is the Earth's nearest neighboring star. However, it would still take 50,000 years for one of our existing spacecraft to reach it.
• Alpha Centauri is part of the Centaurus constellation, which is said to depict a wise centaur from Greek mythology who appeared in the lives and times of Jason and Heracles.
• According to the legend, Heracles accidentally murdered the centaur, causing Zeus to place him among the stars, with Alpha Centauri symbolizing the Centaur's right front foot.
• The star Alpha Centauri was prominent in ancient Egypt, where several temples to various deities were constructed with their main features aligned with the point on the horizon where the star rose.
• The ancient Chinese referred to Epsilon Centauri as the 'Second Star of the Southern Gate'.
• While the Australian Boorong people referred to it as 'Bermbermgle,' in allusion to two courageous brothers who slew the Emu, which is symbolized by the Coal Sack nebula in the neighboring Crux constellation.

Discovery Of Alpha Centauri

In 1689, Jean Richaud, a Jesuit priest from Puducherry in India, discovered Alpha Centauri as a binary system in 1689 while studying a serendipitously passing comet. At the time, the only other known binary system was in the Crux constellation, of which Acrux was the brightest component and a verified double star.

• Proxima Centauri, the system's third member, was identified in 1915 by Robert Innes of the Cape Observatory.
• The Alpha Centauri system appears to the human eye as a single star with a visual magnitude of -0.28, making it the third brightest star after Sirius (-1.46) and Canopus (-0.72).
• Taken on its own, Alpha Centauri A seems to be the fourth bright star system in the night sky, with an apparent brightness of 0.02.

Characteristics Of Alpha Centauri

As visual binary stars, Alpha Centauri appears as one star to the naked eye.

• It is made up of three stars: Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri C).
• Alpha Centauri A is a main-sequence star that is similar to the Sun in size and brightness, although it is 23% bigger and 151.9 times brighter.
• It rotates somewhat faster than the Sun, with a rotational period of around 22 days and an estimated radial velocity of 2.7.
• The star Alpha Centauri was identified in 1915, but its only verified planet, Proxima Centauri b, was found in 2016 and is the closest exoplanet to us. Scientists doubt it will be a habitable zone for humans.
• Alpha Centauri A and B are 4.3 light-years away from Earth and constitute a binary star pair. They're also known as Alpha Centauri AB. To the naked eye, they appear to be a single star.
• They comprise the brightest stars in Centaurus' southern constellation and the third brightest in the night sky, after only Sirius and Canopus.
• The third star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away from Earth, making it the closest star to us other than the Sun.
• Alpha Centauri A and B are both Sun-like stars. Proxima Centauri is a tiny, dim red dwarf.
• The mass of Alpha Centauri A is 1.1 times that of the Sun, and its brightness is 1.51 times that of the Sun.
• Alpha Centauri B is smaller and colder than the Sun. It is a secondary star with a mass of 0.907 times that of the Sun and a luminosity of 0.445 times that of the Sun.
• Proxima Centauri has a mass of 0.1221, and it is 20,000 times fainter than our Sun.
• Alpha Centauri A and B have an orbital period of around 80 years around a shared core. They have a somewhat eccentric elliptical orbit. The distance between A and B ranges between 35.6 and 11.2 AU. A and B are around 23 AU apart on average.
• The current separation between Alpha Centauri AB and Proxima Centauri is around 13,000 AU. This is approximately 430 times the radius of Neptune's orbit.
• Proxima Centauri B has an orbital period of around 11.2 Earth days.
• It is unknown if this exoplanet is habitable, although the circumstances are severe.
• Many potential exoplanets have orbited the Alpha Centaury system, although many have been rejected.
• Alpha Centauri has been studied for hundreds of years since it is the third brightest star in the night sky. It is recorded in Ptolemy's 2nd-century star catalog because it was plainly visible from Alexandria, Egypt at the time.

Dimensions Of Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri A is a yellow star similar to our sun, Alpha Centauri B is an orange star, and Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf about seven times the size of our sun. All three stars are around 4.85 billion years old, which makes them somewhat older than the sun, which is approximately 4.6 billion years old.

• The spectral classification of Alpha Centauri A is the same as that of our Sun, and it has many features, such as mass (1.100 solar), radius (1.227 solar), and brightness (1.519 solar). Rigil Kentaurus, Rigil Kent, Toliman, and Bungula are the stars of this episode.
• Similarly, Beta Centauri has the following statistics: mass (0.907 solar), radius (0.865 solar), and brightness (0.500 solar), but Proxima Centauri has a significantly smaller mass (0.123 solar), radius (0.141 solar), and luminosity (0.500 solar) (0.0017 solar).
• Alpha Centauri lies in the southern hemisphere of the sky's dome. It is not visible beyond 29 degrees north from northern latitudes, including most of the United States.
• The line of visibility in America extends close to Houston and Orlando, yet even as far south as the Florida Keys, Alpha Centauri barely rises a few degrees above the horizon, making it impossible to detect in any but the darkest of skies.
• However, in much of the southern hemisphere, Alpha Centauri is circumpolar and never sets, so it may be seen all year long near the Southern Cross.