The three stars that make up the Centaur Alpha System are the closest stars to...

The three stars that make up the Centaur Alpha System are the closest stars to the Sun. The image on the left shows the double alpha star of the Centauri (Alpha Centauri A and B) overexposed to the red dwarf star Proxima of the Centaurus (indicated by the arrow). Proxima du Centaur is located at a distance of 4.22 years - light from the Sun but is invisible to the naked eye. Alpha Centauri A and B are a little further away, 4.36 years from the Sun. These two stars are relatively similar to the Sun. Although Proxima of Centauri is distant from the Alpha couple of Centauri, its movement seems to link it to this system and is sometimes called Alpha Centauri C. Location of the Alpha Centauri triple stellar system in the sky. The brighter stars (Alpha Centauri A and B) are strongly overexposed, with the outlying member, Proxima lying approx. 2.2* to the south - west (arrow). Smaller areas around the stars are shown in the inserts to the right. The photo has been reproduced from a blue - sensitive photographic plate obtained by the ESO 1 - m Schmidt Telescope, a wide - angle telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile that has now been decommissioned. The Alpha Centauri triple stellar system is our closest neighbour in space. It is located at a distance of 4.36 light - years, or 41 million km, in the direction of the southern constellation Centaurus (The Centaur). The two main stars in the system, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, are rather similar to the Sun; their stellar spectral types are “” G2V”” and “” K1V””, respectively. The third star is a “” red dwarf”” known as Proxima. It is much cooler and smaller than the other two. Alpha Centauri A and B orbit each other at a distance of about 3600 million km, or somewhat more than the distance of planet Uranus from the Sun. The orbital period is almost exactly 80 years. Their smaller companion, Proxima, is about