Alpha Centauri is a three-star system that lies about 4.37 light-years from the sun. Two of the three stars are sunlike neighbors that together form a binary system called Alpha Centauri AB.

Known as the Toliman mission, the project led by the University of Sydney will launch in 2023 and scan Alpha Centauri AB for worlds in the habitable zone, where liquid water can flow on the surface.

Rather, two of the stars in the system, called Alpha Centauri “A” and Alpha Centauri “B” (known together as AB), are actually emitting X-ray radiation on par with what we get from our own sun.

Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to the Solar System. Image released Oct. 17, 2012. ... Health and Environmental Reporting Program and an AB in mathematics from Brown University.

The AB pair are both remarkably similar to our Sun, with Alpha Cen A almost identical in size, brightness, and age, and Alpha Cen B only slightly smaller and dimmer.

The Alpha Centauri group is the closest star - or solar - system outside of our own at a distance of 4.3 lightyears, and it can be found in the night sky in the constellation Centaurus.

While Alpha Centauri AB is the third brightest nighttime star after Sirius and Canopus, Proxima shines meekly at magnitude 11.1 and requires a small telescope to see.

This artist’s impression shows the exoplanet Proxima b, which orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. The double star Alpha Centauri AB appears in the image between the exoplanet and its ...

The hunt for nearby exoplanets has just heated up considerably. A new instrument designed to find potentially habitable alien worlds in Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to our own sun ...