Alpha & Beta Centauri Help?

Question

I've always been interested in these 2 suns that lay just a mere 4.11 light years away from us (i think it's 4.11) anyway if anyone has any detailed information on them I would love to hear it, and your opinion on if we could inhabit the solar systems around it.

Answer 1

Alpha & Beta Centauri is not a binary system but is a 3 star system alpha ,beta and centauri a -also this star system has a influx of gravity on our sun ,without them we would be farther out on this milkyway arm

Answer 2

Alpha and Beta Centauri are two completely different star systems. Beta Centauri, also known as Hadar, is both a triple and a giant star of spectral type B1 about 500 light years from Earth.  One companion is visible in the telescope but it's period is very long and thus as yet undetermined. It may not be a true companion at all, but the other is only detectable in the spectroscope with a period of 352 days. It's too close to Hadar to be detected directly. Hadar's luminosity dwarfs Alpha Centauri's, shining more than 11,000 times more brightly and it has 12 times the mass of the Sun.  Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light years from Earth, and it's distant companion Proxima is a mere 4.2 light years away. The primary star is only slightly more massive than the Sun, with the same spectral type of G2, the secondary is 10 percent less massive and cooler than the Sun, and has a spectral type of K1. Both stars circle each other in a very elliptical 80 year orbit. At closest approach, they are 11 A.U apart, or about 1 billion miles away from each other. At the far end of their orbit, Alpha Centauri A and B are 35 A.U. apart, or more than 3.5 billion miles away from each other. One A.U. is 93 million miles. Proxima Centauri is a  M5 red dwarf with a mass about 15 percent of the Sun and a luminosity some 13,000 times fainter than the Sun. Proxima is also a flare star, which experiences flares similar to the ones on our Sun. Because the star is so feeble to begin with, these flares can cause the star to flare up dramatically before fading away. It's orbit keeps it 13,000 A.U. or more than a trillion miles away from the main pair, with an orbit that requires at least 500,000 years for one revolution. It's also possible that Proxima is merely a temporary visitor rather an a permanent member, but it is moving at the same velocity and direction as the bright pair. On that basis, it is accepted as a distant companion of Alpha Centauri because  a bound trio of stars would all have the same motion through space. As for the system being habitable, I doubt it because the two brighter stars would likely have perturbed each other's planets. They would have been forced into very elliptical orbits, ejected from the system or dove into one of the stars. If there are planets present in the Alpha Centauri system, I wouldn't expect to find a habitable planet there. However, simple life forms can exist in places that are deadly to us, and given the fact these stars have abundant heavy elements smaller planets may have formed around them. Earth sized planets however are not yet detectable so if they are present around one or both members of the main pair, they are yet to be found. If the two stars were very near each other or far apart, then a stable planetary system could exist. There is a good chance that Proxima Centauri gave rise to a family of planets too, given the worlds found around other red dwarf stars. We know so little about our own planet, let alone the ones in our Solar System that it would be presumptuous to rule out any chance, however small that life of some sort could be living in the Alpha Centauri system.

Answer 3

Its 4.3 lightyears, not 4.11

Answer 4

alpha centauri is close by.

beta centauri is a long way away and is not physically related.

both are prominent in the southern hemisphere night sky. alpha centauri is a pretty double star in a telesscope. alpha centauri c is very faint; i've never seen it, but i've never made a concerted effort to find it, either.

the distance between a and b is of teh same order as the distance between the sun and uranus. their orbit is elliptical, so it varies substantiantially over their 80 year orbit.

from the alpha centauri system the sun would be a bright extra zig in the zigzag of cassiopeia.

Answer 5

Hey.....good question indeed...!!

I too am interested in it and I have more than enough info on 'em. Please visit : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centa...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Centau...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Cen...

You'll surely b satisfied ...

Thanx........Good Luck.....!