Detail View: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection: Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System
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Title:
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Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System
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Explanation:
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The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri system [ http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/schatzer/Alpha-Centauri.html ]. Of the three stars in the system, the dimmest -- called Proxima Centauri [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020715.html ] -- is actually the nearest star [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010318.html ]. The bright stars Alpha Centauri [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/rigil-kent.html ] A and B form a close binary [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970219.html ] as they are separated by only 23 times the Earth- Sun distance [ http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/glossary/au.html ] - slightly greater than the distance between Uranus [ http://www.nineplanets.org/uranus.html ] and the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/sun.html ]. In the above picture [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2003/pr-05-03.html ], the brightness of the stars overwhelm the photograph causing an illusion of great size, even though the stars are really just small points of light. The Alpha Centauri system [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2003/pr-05-03.html ] is not visible in much of the northern hemisphere. Alpha Centauri A, also known as Rigil Kentaurus [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/hr/5459.html ], is the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/cen.html ] and is the fourth brightest star in the night sky. Sirius [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000611.html ] is the brightest even thought it is more than twice as far away. By an exciting coincidence, Alpha Centauri [ http://www.solstation.com/stars/alp-cent3.htm ] A is the same type of star as our Sun [ http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html ], causing many to speculate [ http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/schatzer/Alpha-Centauri.html ] that it might contain planets that harbor life.
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Credit and Copyright:
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1-Meter Schmidt Telescope [ http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/2p2/Schmidt/ ], ESO [ http://www.eso.org/ ]
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keyword:
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Alpha Centauri
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facet_where:
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Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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facet_what:
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Centaurus
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original url:
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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030323.html
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UID:
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SPD-APOD-ap030323
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