Alpha Centauri - Simple English Wikipedia

# Alpha Centauri

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Position of Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri is the most bright star system in the southern Centaurus constellation. It is the fourth brightest star in the night sky, with a magnitude of -0.01. It is visible in the Southern Hemisphere, and is too far south for most of the Northern Hemisphere to see.

It is the closest star system to our own, being 4.2-4.4 light years (ly) away.

To the naked eye, the two brightest parts of the system are too close for the eye to be able to be able to see them as separate stars.

## [edit] Names

Its proper name is Rigil Kentaurus (often shortened to Rigil Kent), which comes from the Arabic phrase Al Rijl al Kentaurus, meaning "foot of the centaur", but is usually referred to by its Bayer name Alpha Centauri. Another name is Toliman. It is also sometimes known as Bungula, possibly from the Latin word ungula meaning "hoof". It and Beta Centauri (which is close to Alpha Centauri in angular distance as seen from the Earth, but is actually many light-years away) are the "Pointers" to the Southern Cross.

Alpha Centauri A is also known as HD 128620, HR 5459, CP-60°5483, GCTP 3309.00A, and LHS 50. Alpha Centauri B is also known as HD 128621, HR 5460, GCTP 3309.00B, and LHS 51.

## [edit] System

Relative sizes of stars

Alpha Centauri is a triple star system. It consists of two main stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B (which form a binary star together) at a distance of 4.36 ly, and a dimmer red dwarf named Proxima Centauri at a distance of 4.22 ly. Both of the two main stars are rather similar to the Sun. The larger star, Alpha Centauri A, is the most similar to the Sun, but a little larger and brighter.

Retrieved from "http://simple.wikipedia.org../../../a/l/p/Alpha_Centauri_51c3.html"

Category: Stars

##### Views

- Article
- Talk
- Newest version

##### Search

##### In other languages

- العربية
- বাংলা
- Български
- Català
- Česky
- Deutsch
- English
- Español
- Esperanto
- Euskara
- Français
- Galego
- Hrvatski
- Ido
- Italiano
- עברית
- Latina
- Lietuvių
- Magyar
- Nederlands
- 日本語
- Norsk (bokmål)
- Polski
- Português
- Română
- Русский
- Slovenčina
- Suomi
- Svenska
- Türkçe
- Українська
- 中文