The Alpha Centauri star system
This image shows the closest stellar system to the Sun, the bright double star Alpha Centauri AB and its distant and faint companion Proxima Centauri. In late 2016 ESO signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the VLT instrumentation to conduct a search for planets in the Alpha Centauri system. Such planets could be the targets for an eventual launch of miniature space probes by the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative.
Credit:ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/Mahdi Zamani
About the Image
| Id: | eso1702b |
| Type: | Photographic |
| Release date: | 9 January 2017, 17:00 |
| Related releases: | eso1702 |
| Size: | 19050 x 13936 px |
About the Object
| Type: | Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary System |
| Category: | Exoplanets Stars |
