Alpha Centauri - Component Designations

Component Designations

"Alpha Centauri" is the name given to what appears as a single star to the naked eye and the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus. With the aid of a telescope, Alpha Centauri can be resolved into a binary star system in close orbit. This is known as the Alpha Centauri AB system, which is abbreviated as α Centauri AB or α Cen AB.

Alpha Centauri A (α Cen A) and Alpha Centauri B (α Cen B) are the individual stars of the binary system, usually defined to identify them as the different components of the binary α Cen AB. A third companion, Proxima Centauri (or Proxima or α Cen C), has a distance much greater than the observed separation between stars A and B and is probably gravitationally associated with the AB system. As viewed from Earth, it is located at an angular separation of 2.2° from the AB system. If it were bright enough to be seen without a telescope, Proxima Centauri would appear to the naked eye as a star separate from α Cen AB. Alpha Centauri AB and Proxima Centauri form a visual double star. Direct evidence that Proxima Centauri has an elliptical orbit typical of binary stars has yet to be found.

Together all three components make a triple star system, referred to by double-star observers as the triple star (or multiple star), α Cen AB-C.