Chandra Release - June 6, 2018

Visual Description: Alpha Centauri

The image shows a wide area around the triple star system Alpha Centauri. The image displays a brownish background with white and blue stars and dark dust densely packed across the wide view of the sky. This is a visible-light image taken from the ground of the Alpha Centauri system and its surroundings. In the left-center of the image, there is a bright blue-white source labeled, representing the Alpha Centauri system. The upper right inset box shows a close up of the Alpha Centauri system in X-ray light from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Chandra data from May 2nd, 2017 are included in this inset, showing 2 bright blue-white sources close to each other. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system located just over four light years, or about 25 trillion miles, from Earth. While this is a large distance in terrestrial terms, it is three times closer than the next nearest Sun-like star.