Alpha Centauri

stars · space · nearest neighbors · constellations

Three stars together. Alpha Centauri isn't just one star but three stars that travel through space as a family. Two of them, Rigil Kentaurus and Toliman, orbit each other closely, while the third star, Proxima Centauri, circles around them from farther away.

Our closest neighbor. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our Sun in the entire galaxy, sitting just 4.2 light-years away. That means light from Proxima takes over four years to reach Earth, but it's still closer than any other star we know of.

Visible from Earth. Alpha Centauri A and B are the closest stars you can actually see with just your eyes from the southern hemisphere. They appear as one bright point in the night sky, but through a telescope you can see they're really two separate stars.

Found in Centaurus. This star system lives in the constellation Centaurus, which is visible from the southern part of Earth. Ancient astronomers named this region after a creature from mythology that was half human and half horse.