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Alpha Centauri Bb

Alpha Centauri Bb was a candidate exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, the secondary star in the Alpha Centauri triple star system, which lies 4.37 light-years from the Sun and is the nearest known stellar system to Earth.^[1] Announced in 2012, it was reported as an Earth-mass world with a minimum mass of about 1.13 Earth masses, completing an orbit every 3.236 days at a semi-major axis of 0.04 AU, placing it in an extremely close, tidally locked configuration around its K1V host star and rendering it uninhabitable due to intense stellar radiation.^[1] However, the planet's existence was refuted in 2015 when detailed re-analysis revealed the radial velocity signal to be a non-physical artifact arising from the observational sampling window rather than a genuine planetary signature.^[2] The detection of Alpha Centauri Bb was initially made using high-precision radial velocity measurements from the HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile, part of the European Southern Observatory.^[3] A team led by Xavier Dumusque employed advanced data processing techniques to isolate a subtle 0.51 m/s wobble in Alpha Centauri B's motion, attributing it to the gravitational pull of a low-mass companion after accounting for stellar activity and instrumental noise.^[1] At the time, this would have marked the closest Earth-mass exoplanet to the Solar System and the smallest detected around a Sun-like star, sparking significant interest in potential habitability analogs and interstellar exploration targets within the system.^[3] Subsequent scrutiny, including non-detections in transit searches with the Hubble Space Telescope, raised doubts about the candidate's validity.^[4] The definitive debunking came from a 2015 study by Vinesh Rajpaul and colleagues, who reprocessed the original HARPS dataset alongside additional observations and demonstrated that the 3.24-day periodicity was a spurious "ghost" signal produced by the uneven temporal sampling of the data, even in planet-free simulations.^[2] Their analysis showed that correcting for stellar activity fully suppressed planetary-like signals, confirming no evidence for Alpha Centauri Bb and highlighting challenges in detecting low-mass exoplanets around active stars like Alpha Centauri B, which has a mass of approximately 0.90 solar masses and is slightly cooler and smaller than the Sun.^[2]

The Alpha Centauri System

System Overview

The Alpha Centauri system is the closest known star system to the Sun, situated at a distance of 4.37 light-years (approximately 1.34 parsecs).^[5] This triple-star system comprises Alpha Centauri A, a G2V main-sequence star similar to the Sun in spectral type and luminosity; Alpha Centauri B, a cooler K1V orange dwarf; and Proxima Centauri, the faintest component, classified as an M5.5V red dwarf with about 12% of the Sun's mass.^[5] These stars are located in the southern constellation of Centaurus and are visible to the naked eye as a single bright point from Earth's southern hemisphere. Alpha Centauri A and B form a close binary pair, orbiting their common center of mass with a period of 79.91 years and a semi-major axis of 23.4 AU, resulting in a current separation of about 23 AU—roughly the distance from the Sun to Uranus.^[6] Their orbit is eccentric (e ≈ 0.52), causing the separation to vary between 11 and 36 AU over each cycle. Proxima Centauri, gravitationally bound to the system, orbits the A-B barycenter at a much wider separation of approximately 12,950 AU (0.21 light-years), with an orbital period of about 550,000 years.^[7] The proximity of Alpha Centauri to Earth underscores its astronomical significance as the nearest system potentially hosting habitable exoplanets, facilitating high-resolution observations that reveal details unattainable for more distant targets.^[8] Indeed, Proxima Centauri is known to host at least one confirmed Earth-mass exoplanet, Proxima b, in its habitable zone. The binary nature of Alpha Centauri A and B was first recognized in 1689 by the French Jesuit astronomer Jean Richaud while observing a comet from Pondicherry, India,^[9] and the orbital elements were later determined through micrometrical measurements by John Herschel starting in 1834; modern scientific interest surged in the 1990s with the advent of exoplanet detection techniques targeting nearby systems.^[10]

Host Star: Alpha Centauri B

Alpha Centauri B is a K1V main-sequence star with a mass of 0.907 solar masses (M☉), a radius of 0.865 solar radii (R☉), a luminosity of 0.50 solar luminosities (L☉), and an effective temperature of approximately 5,260 K.^[11] These properties place it in the lower main sequence, cooler and less massive than the Sun, yet still capable of sustaining a stable hydrogen fusion core for billions of years. The star's apparent visual magnitude of 1.33 makes it one of the brightest stars in the night sky, visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. The age of Alpha Centauri B is estimated at 5.3 ± 0.3 billion years, comparable to the Sun's age, indicating a mature evolutionary stage with minimal changes expected over human timescales.^[12] Its metallicity, measured as [Fe/H] ≈ +0.23, reflects a slightly metal-rich composition relative to the Sun, which influences the star's atmospheric opacity and potential for planet formation.^[13] Alpha Centauri B exhibits moderate stellar activity, including starspots and occasional flares driven by its magnetic dynamo, which introduces variability in its radial velocity measurements and complicates precise exoplanet detection.^[14] The star's rotation period is approximately 36 days, contributing to periodic photometric variations from spot modulation.^[3] Observationally, Alpha Centauri B's proximity to its companion Alpha Centauri A—forming a binary pair with an orbital period of 79.9 years and separations ranging from 11 to 35 AU—poses significant challenges, as gravitational perturbations and light contamination from the brighter G2V primary hinder high-precision spectroscopy and imaging. The inner edge of its habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on a rocky planet's surface, lies at roughly 0.5 AU, extending outward to about 1.0 AU, making it an attractive target for searches of potentially habitable worlds despite the binary dynamics. Photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of the star dates back to the 19th century, with systematic observations beginning in the early 20th century using ground-based telescopes, providing a long baseline of data on its variability and orbital motion.^[15] The system's overall proximity at 4.3 light-years enables unprecedented high-resolution imaging opportunities with modern instruments.^[5]

Proposed Detection

Radial Velocity Method

The radial velocity method detects exoplanets by measuring the periodic Doppler shift in a star's spectral lines, which arises from the star's reflex motion due to the gravitational influence of an orbiting planet.^[16] This wobble manifests as a line-of-sight velocity variation with semi-amplitude K, approximated for circular orbits by

K = (28.4 \, \mathrm{m/s}) \left( \frac{M_p \sin i}{M_J} \right) \left( \frac{P}{1 \, \mathrm{yr}} \right)^{-1/3} \left( \frac{M_\star}{M_\odot} \right)^{-2/3},

where M_p is the planet mass, i is the orbital inclination, P is the orbital period, M_J and M_\odot are the masses of Jupiter and the Sun, respectively, and M_\star is the stellar mass.^[17] The method's sensitivity scales inversely with the planet's orbital period and the stellar mass, making it particularly suited for detecting close-in planets around low-mass stars, though the \sin i factor yields only a minimum mass estimate.^[18] Historically, the radial velocity technique revolutionized exoplanet detection when it revealed the first planet orbiting a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b, in 1995, using spectroscopic observations to identify a 51-day periodic signal.^[19] Over subsequent decades, instrumental advancements have pushed precision from tens of m/s to sub-m/s levels, enabling the pursuit of Earth-mass planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars by mitigating noise from stellar oscillations, granulation, and instrumental effects through sophisticated data modeling.^[20] Key to these advances is high-precision instrumentation like the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a fiber-fed echelle spectrograph on ESO's 3.6 m telescope at La Silla Observatory, which achieves long-term radial velocity precision of approximately 1 m/s for bright, inactive stars via the simultaneous thorium-argon reference technique.^[21] Data processing involves automated pipelines for wavelength calibration, spectral extraction, and cross-correlation with stellar templates to derive velocities, alongside corrections for telluric lines and barycentric motion; advanced algorithms further model and subtract stellar noise to isolate planetary signals.^[21] For nearby stars like Alpha Centauri B—a K-type dwarf with properties similar to but slightly less massive than the Sun—the method benefits from the target's brightness (V ≈ 1.3 mag), permitting high signal-to-noise observations over extended baselines to build robust time series.^[1] However, challenges persist from stellar activity, such as rotationally modulated spots and plages, which induce radial velocity jitter on the order of 1–2 m/s that can mimic or mask low-amplitude planetary signals, necessitating multi-wavelength monitoring and Gaussian process modeling for mitigation.^[20] In the case of Alpha Centauri B, 459 HARPS spectra were collected from February 2008 to July 2011 and analyzed via periodogram searches for periodic radial velocity variations indicative of potential companions.^[1]

Announcement and Claimed Properties

On October 16, 2012, an international team of astronomers led by Xavier Dumusque from the Geneva Observatory announced the discovery of Alpha Centauri Bb, a candidate exoplanet orbiting the closest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri B. The detection was reported in a paper published in Nature, detailing radial velocity measurements obtained using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph on the 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The team analyzed 459 high-precision spectra collected from February 2008 to July 2011, identifying periodic variations in the star's radial velocity that they attributed to the gravitational influence of an unseen companion.^[1]^[22] The observed signal consisted of radial velocity semi-amplitude variations of $0.51 \pm 0.04 m/s with an orbital period of $3.2357 \pm 0.0008 days and a signal-to-noise ratio of approximately 4.4. To distinguish the planetary signal from stellar activity noise, the researchers employed Gaussian process regression modeling, which effectively mitigated correlated noise from phenomena such as stellar rotation and magnetic cycles. This approach allowed for the isolation of a coherent Keplerian signal, which was compared favorably to radial velocity signatures of known low-mass planets around other stars, such as those detected in the habitable zones of K-type dwarfs. The claimed properties of Alpha Centauri Bb positioned it as a super-Earth with a minimum mass of m \sin i \approx 1.13 \pm 0.09 Earth masses (M_\oplus), assuming a circular orbit inclined relative to the line of sight. Its estimated semi-major axis was approximately 0.04 AU, resulting in an orbital velocity of about 100 km/s and an equilibrium temperature of roughly 1,200 K, rendering it inhospitable for liquid water and any Earth-like habitability. Despite these extreme conditions, the announcement generated significant media attention, portraying the planet as the nearest potentially rocky world to our Solar System and fueling public interest in interstellar exoplanet exploration.

Scientific Analysis and Debunking

Initial Doubts and Reanalyses

Following the 2012 announcement of Alpha Centauri Bb, early skepticism emerged from reanalyses of the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) dataset used in the detection. In 2012–2013, Artie Hatzes and colleagues conducted an independent examination of the HARPS radial velocity measurements for Alpha Centauri B, applying Fourier component analysis (pre-whitening) and local trend filtering techniques to isolate potential planetary signals from noise. Their analysis detected a marginal signal near the claimed orbital period of 3.24 days but with a false alarm probability of a few percent, corresponding to a p-value greater than 0.05, indicating no statistically significant evidence for the planet. They proposed that the observed variations could result from aliasing effects induced by solar-like activity on the star or instrumental artifacts in the data sampling.^[20] A prominent alternative explanation centered on stellar activity as the source of the putative radial velocity signal. Spots and oscillations on the surface of Alpha Centauri B, a K-type dwarf similar to the Sun, are known to generate false positives in radial velocity surveys by mimicking short-period planetary orbits. Frequency analysis of the HARPS data revealed power at periods around 3.24 days that aligned with the star's activity cycles, suggesting the signal arose from these intrinsic stellar phenomena rather than an orbiting body. This hypothesis underscored the challenges of distinguishing low-amplitude planetary signals (on the order of 0.5 m/s) from the star's natural variability in such nearby, active systems.^[20] A 2015 study by Vinesh Rajpaul and collaborators advanced activity modeling using a Gaussian process framework to jointly fit radial velocity data with ancillary indicators like bisector spans and activity indices, effectively reducing the significance of the candidate signal to below 2σ and attributing residuals primarily to unmodeled stellar noise.^[23] The astronomical community responded with vigorous debate in the literature, exemplified by Hatzes' 2013 Astrophysical Journal paper, which emphasized the need for refined statistical methods to handle activity noise in Earth-mass planet searches. This sparked calls for additional high-precision observations to clarify the ambiguity, with researchers advocating for extended monitoring campaigns.^[20]

Key Studies Disproving Existence

In 2015, a team led by Vinesh Rajpaul from the University of Oxford reanalyzed the publicly available High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) data for Alpha Centauri B, employing advanced Gaussian process noise modeling to account for stellar activity. Their analysis revealed that the 3.24-day radial velocity signal attributed to Alpha Centauri Bb was a spurious "ghost" peak arising from the window function of the observational sampling and gaps in the dataset, rather than a genuine planetary signature.^[2] Synthetic datasets with identical time sampling but no periodic signals still produced a false detection at a similar period with significance exceeding 3σ, underscoring the artifact's origin in data processing.^[2] Complementing this, observations with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013 and 2014, totaling 40 hours of monitoring, searched for transits of the candidate planet across Alpha Centauri B's disk. The resulting light curves showed no evidence of an eclipse or transit event consistent with the proposed orbital parameters, ruling out a transiting Earth-mass planet at 96.6% confidence. This null result further weakened the case for Alpha Centauri Bb's existence, as a close-in orbit like the proposed 3.24-day period would have a high geometric probability of transiting from Earth's viewpoint. Subsequent reexaminations of extended HARPS datasets through 2014, incorporating additional observations, confirmed the signal's amplitude had diminished below reliable detection thresholds, with no residual planetary periodicity evident after stellar activity mitigation.^[2] The reanalysis demonstrated that the observed signal, while appearing statistically significant, was overwhelmingly likely to be a noise artifact rather than a planet, as evidenced by the reproduction of similar signals in planet-free simulations.

Legacy and Ongoing Research

Impact on Exoplanet Science

The debunking of Alpha Centauri Bb exemplified the vulnerabilities of the radial velocity method to false positives, particularly when stellar activity mimics low-amplitude planetary signals in datasets with sparse sampling. The initial 2012 detection relied on a ~0.5 m/s signal with a 3.24-day period, but reanalysis revealed it as an artifact arising from the observation window function interacting with intrinsic stellar variability, rather than a genuine Earth-mass planet.^[24] This case highlighted the risks for detections around active stars like Alpha Centauri B, where magnetic cycles and spots can produce correlated noise indistinguishable from orbital reflexes without advanced modeling.^[25] The episode spurred methodological advancements in exoplanet detection, emphasizing multi-instrument confirmation and sophisticated stellar activity mitigation. Post-2012 analyses accelerated the adoption of Gaussian process regression for joint modeling of planetary and activity signals in radial velocity time series, as demonstrated in frameworks that treat activity as a non-periodic covariance process.^[23] Complementary tools like SOAP, which simulate radial velocity perturbations from starspots and faculae, gained prominence for validating signals by forward-modeling activity-induced variations, helping to filter artifacts in subsequent surveys.^[26] These developments have improved the reliability of low-mass planet hunts by quantifying activity noise more accurately. Alpha Centauri Bb raised the bar for announcing low-mass exoplanets, with modern radial velocity claims typically requiring signal-to-noise ratios above 5σ to account for activity-induced uncertainties, especially for Earth-mass candidates in habitable zones.^[25] It contributed to broader recognition that stellar activity accounts for a substantial fraction of early radial velocity detections, informing statistical reviews that underscore the need for rigorous validation to avoid catalog contamination.^[25] Additionally, the saga fueled debates on publication practices, as lead author Xavier Dumusque conceded the planet's likely non-existence after the 2015 reanalysis, illustrating the value of preprint scrutiny and peer-reviewed self-correction in advancing exoplanet science.^[27]

Current Searches in the System

In the Alpha Centauri system, two exoplanets have been confirmed orbiting the red dwarf Proxima Centauri: Proxima b, an Earth-mass planet discovered in 2016 residing in the habitable zone, and Proxima d, a sub-Earth planet with a mass about 0.26 times Earth's, confirmed in 2022. Proxima c remains an unconfirmed candidate super-Earth with a minimum mass approximately seven times that of Earth and an orbital period of about 1,928 days; however, 2025 observations with the NIRPS spectrograph found no evidence for the original signal but hinted at a possible lower-mass companion with a similar period.^[28]^[29]^[30] No exoplanets have been confirmed around Alpha Centauri A or B to date.^[31] Recent missions targeting the Alpha Centauri A and B stars include the TOLIMAN space telescope, a low-cost astrometry platform led by the University of Sydney and scheduled for launch in 2026, designed to detect Earth-mass planets in temperate orbits through high-precision measurements of stellar wobble. Complementing this, the NEAR (New Earths in the AlphaCen Region) project, a ground-based infrared survey using adaptive optics on telescopes like the Very Large Telescope, conducted observations from 2023 to 2025 to image low-mass planets in the habitable zones of A and B, demonstrating feasibility for detecting Earth-like worlds in about 100 hours of observing time.^[32]^[33]^[34] The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has conducted direct imaging attempts on Alpha Centauri A during 2024 and 2025 using its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) with a coronagraph to suppress stellar light. Initial observations in August 2024 detected a point source candidate, S1, at 1.5 arcseconds separation with a flux of 3.5 mJy at 15.5 μm, suggestive of a gas giant planet potentially in the habitable zone; follow-up observations in February and April 2025 were inconclusive. As of November 2025, analyses of these JWST data provide strong evidence for a Saturn-mass gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A, though the detection remains unconfirmed, with no evidence reviving claims of planets around Alpha Centauri B.^[8]^[35]^[36]^[37] Ground-based efforts have refined limits on undetected planets around Alpha Centauri B using updated data from the HARPS spectrograph for radial velocity measurements and SPHERE for high-contrast imaging between 2020 and 2025. These analyses exclude Earth-mass planets with orbital periods shorter than 50 days at greater than 95% confidence, tightening constraints on inner system architectures.^[38] Looking ahead, the Breakthrough Starshot initiative continues to explore propulsion technologies for interstellar probes to Alpha Centauri, with implications for in-situ studies of any confirmed exoplanets in the system. Recent habitability modeling favors Alpha Centauri A over B for stable, long-term planetary orbits due to its closer similarity to the Sun and reduced dynamical perturbations from the binary companion. The legacy of past detection challenges in the system has enhanced overall reliability in exoplanet confirmation protocols.^[39]^[40]

References

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An Earth-mass planet orbiting α Centauri B - Nature
Oct 17, 2012 · Here we report the detection of an Earth-mass planet orbiting our neighbour star α Centauri B, a member of the closest stellar system to the Sun.Missing: Bb discovery
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Oct 16, 2012 · This research was presented in a paper “An Earth mass planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B”, to appear online in the journal Nature on 17 October ...Missing: Bb | Show results with:Bb
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We rule out the transiting nature of α Centauri B b with the orbital parameters published in the literature at 96.6 per cent confidence. We find in our data a ...
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Alpha Centauri Stellar System - NASA Scientific Visualization Studio
Jun 13, 2023 · Alpha Centauri A is a Class G star that is 1.1 times the mass of the Sun. Alpha Centauri B is slightly cooler Class K star that is 0.9 times ...
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The Mt John Alpha Centauri Project
... α Centauri is a double star (G2V + K1V) Orbital elements: Period P = 79.91 yr. Eccentricity e = 0.52. Semi-major axis a = 23.4 A.U.. Inclination i = 79°
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Proxima's orbit around Centauri | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)
We show that Proxima and α Cen are gravitationally bound with a high degree of confidence. The orbital period of Proxima is ≈ 550 000 yr.
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Aug 7, 2025 · At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond ...
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A Family Portrait of the Alpha Centauri System | ESO Österreich
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", ...
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A Family Portrait of the Alpha Centauri System - Eso.org
Mar 15, 2003 · Comparison of the Alpha Centauri stars and the Sun ; Mass, 1.100, 0.907 ; Radius, 1.227, 0.865 ; Temperature, 5790, 5260 ; Luminosity, 1.519, 0.500 ...
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Jun 20, 2018 · The optimal models find an age for \alpha Centauri of 5.3 \pm 0.3 Gyr. Comments: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Subjects ...
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All analyses yield consistent metallicities and lead to a robust value, [Fe/H] ~ +0.23 dex, which comfortably lies within the commonly accepted range for this ...
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Proxima Cen is a known flare star that exhibits random but significant increases in brightness due to magnetic activity (Christian et al. 2004). The spectrum of ...
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The radial velocity method measures a star's line-of-sight velocity using the Doppler effect, measuring the velocity along the radius between observer and ...
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Page not found | Nature
- **Status**: Insufficient relevant content.
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THE RADIAL VELOCITY DETECTION OF EARTH-MASS PLANETS ...
Alpha Centauri B has a modest level of activity that creates substantial RV “jitter” compared to the planet signal. The RV measurements showed a dominant ...
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Feb 15, 2013 · The instrument is built to obtain very high long term radial velocity accuracy (on the order of 1 m/s). To achieve this goal, HARPS is ...
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Jan 4, 2016 · If verified, Alpha Centauri Bb would be the closest known exoplanet to our own Solar System, and possibly also the lowest mass planet ever ...Missing: et al.
[26]
TOLIMAN Space Telescope
The TOLIMAN Space Telescope is taking a step forward in planning for interstellar journey by identifying if there is an Earth analogue in Alpha Centauri.
[27]
Earth analogues in Alpha Centauri with the TOLIMAN space telescope
Aug 23, 2024 · The TOLIMAN mission will fly a low-cost space telescope designed and led from the University of Sydney. Its primary science targets an ...
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Aug 5, 2025 · In August 2024, we detected a F_\nu(15.5 \mum) = 3.5 mJy point source, called S1, at a separation of 1.5" from \alpha Cen A. Because the August ...
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Because the 2024 August epoch had only one successful observation at a single roll angle, it is not possible to unambiguously confirm S1 as a bona fide planet.<|separator|>
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Breakthrough Starshot aims to demonstrate proof of concept for ultra-fast light-driven nanocrafts, and lay the foundations for a first launch to Alpha Centauri.Missing: habitability 2025
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Mar 15, 2022 · The mission aims to launch a lightweight space telescope to directly image exoplanets around Earth's nearest star system, Alpha Centauri.