Facts about the Closest Star
Alpha Centauri is the closest star to our planet and its distance from the sun is 4.37 light years. In actual, it is a star system that contains three stars Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B and Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the earth with a distance of 4.22 light years. One of our current spacecrafts would take around 50,000 years to reach it.
Quick Facts: –
- The binary pair of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B was first recognized in 1689 by Jean Richaud.
- The third member of this system, Proxima Centauri was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes.
- The entire star system appears as a single star to the naked eye.
- Alpha Centauri A is yellow in colour, Alpha Centauri B is orange and Proxima Centauri is red.
- Proxima Centauri is the smallest and the dimmest of all three of them.
- Alpha Centauri A is the fourth brightest star in the night sky.
- Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B both are known to orbit each other and the third star of the system Proxima Centauri orbits both of them.
- Some scientists have an opinion that Alpha Centauri A and B were formed about 4.85 billion years ago.
- Alpha Centauri Star system is located in the constellation of Centaurs.
- This star system is not visible from most of the Northern hemisphere.