Alpha Centauri
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Alpha Centauri is a triple star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It consists of three stars: Rigil Kentaurus, Toliman (B) and Proxima Centauri (C). Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun at 4.2465 light-years.
Alpha Centauri AB (left) forms a triple star system with Proxima Centauri, circled in red. The bright star system to the right is Beta Centauri.
View of Alpha Centauri from the Digitized Sky Survey-2
Alpha Centauri A (left) is of the same stellar type G2 as the Sun, while Alpha Centauri B (right) is a K1-type star.
Looking towards the sky around Orion from Alpha Centauri with Sirius near Betelgeuse, Procyon in Gemini, and the Sun in Cassiopeia generated by Celestia.
Proxima Centauri
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Proxima Centauri is a small, low-mass star located 4.2465 light-years (1.3020 pc) away from the Sun in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Its Latin name means the 'nearest [star] of Centaurus'. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With a quiescent apparent magnitude of 11.13, it is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Proxima Centauri is a member of the Alpha Centauri star system, being identified as component Alpha Centauri C, and is 2.18° to the southwest of the Alpha Centauri AB pair. It is currently 12,950 AU (0.2 ly) from AB, which it orbits with a period of about 550,000 years.
False color Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 image taken in 2013. The bright lines are diffraction spikes.
Schematic of the three planets (d, b and c) of the Proxima Centauri system, with the habitable zone identified
Overview and comparison of the orbital distance of the habitable zone.