Astrophysics (Index)About

Alpha Centauri

(α Centauri, Rigil Kentaurus)
(nearest star system)

Alpha Centauri (Rigil Kentaurus) is the nearest star system to the Earth beyond the Sun. The entire system has three stars: the two larger stars form a binary star: Alpha Centauri A, a G2V-type star with absolute magnitude +4.38 and Alpha Centauri B a K1V-type star with absolute magnitude +5.71. Without a telescope, they have the appearance of a single star, orbiting in about 80 years, their eccentric orbit varying the distance between them from 11 to 37 AU.

The third star is Alpha Centauri C or Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf of spectral type M5.5Ve and an absolute magnitude of +15.6. It is currently the closest of the three to Earth, orbiting the binary system about once every half million years, currently about a fifth of a light-year and about 2 degrees' angular distance from the pair. It has a confirmed extra-solar planet of interest, Proxima b, that appears to be in its habitable zone.

Characteristics (Alpha Centauri A):


(star,nearby star,binary star,bright star,exoplanets)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Starlog/strclos.html#c2
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=alpha+centauri
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=proxima+centauri
https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/AlphaCen.html
https://theplanets.org/stars/alpha-centauri-facts/
https://esahubble.org/images/potw1635a/
https://chview.nova.org/solcom/stars/alp-cent3.htm
RedshiftParsecs
/Distance
Lightyears
/Lookback Years
  
~01.33pc4.34lyAlpha Centauri
Coordinates:α Centauri
J143936.49400-605002.3737

Referenced by pages:
absolute magnitude (M)
apparent magnitude (m)
astronomical quantities
astronomical unit (AU)
Barnard's Star
Bayer designation
G-type star (G)
galactic bulge
globular cluster (GC)
gravitational wave strain (h)
Luhman 16
M-type star (M)
multiple star system
Oort Cloud
Proxima b
quantum system
red dwarf
Sirius
star system
Starshot
stellar designation
stellar nucleus
wide binaries (WB)
Wolf 359

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