Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri (? Cen) is the closest star system to the Solar System at a distance of 4.37 light-years (1.34 pc). It consists of three stars: the pair Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B and a small and faint red dwarf, Proxima Centauri, that may be gravitationally bound to the other two. To the unaided eye, the two main components appear as a single object of an apparent visual magnitude of ?0.27, forming the brightest star in the southern constellation Centaurus and the third-brightest star in the night sky, outshone only by Sirius and Canopus.