Alpha Centauri is a triple-star system.It consists of Alfa centauri A,Alfa Centauri B,and Proximal centauri One of the three starts in Alpha Centauri is Proxima Centauri, which is the nearest star to Earth, except of course for the Sun. The name “Proxima” comes from a Latin word which means “close”. Even though Proxima Centauri is the closest star to Earth outside our solar system, it is not really close. Interstellar distances are so large that they are almost impossible to imagine. A person travelling in a modern spacecraft would not arrive at Proxima Centauri within this lifetime, or the next or even ten lifetimes because the distance is so great.

Light travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second and it still takes light more than four years to travel from Proxima Centauri to Earth. Alpha Centauri can easily been seen in the night sky without a telescope from certain parts of Earth. It is the third brightest star in the sky, out of approximately 6,000 visible stars. It cannot be seen from most parts of the Northern Hemisphere because most of the land is too far north; however it can be seen from the southern parts of the Northern Hemisphere