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The distance of Alpha Centauri from the Earth is now reckoned at 4.396 light-years or 4.159 × 10 13 km.) α Centauri A (left) is of the same stellar type G2 as the Sun, while α Centauri B (right) is a K1-type star. [67] Later, John Herschel made the first micrometrical observations in 1834. [68]
The Alpha Centauri star system is the closest star system to the Sun. ... The first star to have its distance to Earth measured after the Sun. Also the 15th nearest ...
The closest system is Alpha Centauri, with Proxima Centauri as the closest star in that system, at 4.2465 light-years from Earth. The brightest, most massive and most luminous object among those 131 is Sirius A , which is also the brightest star in Earth's night sky ; its white dwarf companion Sirius B is the hottest object among them.
Alpha Centauri is a triple star system composed of a binary system orbited by Proxima Centauri, currently the nearest star to the Sun. Traditionally called Rigil Kentaurus (from Arabic رجل قنطورس, meaning "foot of the centaur") or Toliman (from Arabic الظليمين meaning "two male ostriches"), the system has an overall magnitude ...
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.
The nearest known star is Proxima Centauri at 269,000 AU (4.25 ly), [4] followed by Alpha Centauri at about 4.35 light years. [4] Oort cloud comets orbit the Sun at great distances, but can then be perturbed by passing stars and the galactic tides. [5]
Evolution of the solar luminosity, radius and effective temperature compared to the present-day Sun. After Ribas (2009) [3] The uncrewed SOHO spacecraft was used to measure the radius of the Sun by timing transits of Mercury across the surface during 2003 and 2006. The result was a measured radius of 696,342 ± 65 kilometres (432,687 ± 40 miles).
Proxima Centauri b is the closest exoplanet to Earth, [19] at a distance of about 4.2 ly (1.3 parsecs). [4] It orbits Proxima Centauri every 11.186 Earth days at a distance of about 0.049 AU, [1] over 20 times closer to Proxima Centauri than Earth is to the Sun. [20] As of 2021, it is unclear whether it has an eccentricity [e] [23] but Proxima Centauri b is unlikely to have any obliquity. [24]