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Alpha Centauri A Planet Candidate (Artist’s Concept)

Illustration of a large spherical object that looks like a gas giant planet. The object appears to have bands of tan, orange, and dark red horizontal lines forming patterns similar to those in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The background is filled with thousands of distant stars that form a Milky Way-like band running from left to right. The host star, Alpha Centauri A, appears as a glowing white circle to the upper left of the planet. Further off in the distance above and to the right of the planet is a smaller glowing circle, nearby Alpha Centauri B. The words “Artist’s Concept” are in the lower left corner.

This artist’s concept shows what a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like. Observations of the triple star system Alpha Centauri using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope indicate the potential gas giant, about the mass of Saturn, orbiting the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth.

In this concept, Alpha Centauri A is depicted at the upper left of the planet, while the other Sun-like star in the system, Alpha Centauri B, is at the upper right. Our Sun is shown as a small dot of light between those two stars.

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  • Release Date
    August 7, 2025
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Finds New Evidence for Planet Around Closest Solar Twin
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Robert Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

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Related Images & Videos

Three panels, each showing a different view of the binary star system Alpha Centauri. The panel at the left is a Digitized Sky Survey image showing a single bright point source at the center of a black image with small stars scattered throughout. The very center of this bright source is outlined with a vertical box, tilted slightly to the left, with two diagonal lines leading to the second panel. The Hubble Space Telescope image shows two white stars with 4 diffraction spikes each against a black background. The top star is labeled Alpha Cen B and the bottom Alpha Cen A. Alpha Cen A is outlined with a white square with two diagonal lines leading to the third panel at the furthest right, which shows a James Webb Space Telescope image of the star. Within a large white circle there is a blurry red-toned field with an orange star icon and central black circle outlined in white marking the location of Alpha Cen A. A bright orange blob at 9 o’clock in relation to the star is labeled “S1” and circled.

Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (DSS, Hubble, Webb)

This image shows the Alpha Centauri star system from several different ground- and space-based observatories: the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Alpha Centauri A is the closest Sun-like star to Earth.

Three panels, each showing a different view of the binary star system Alpha Centauri from the Webb. The left panel shows a rectangular image tilted at a 45 degree angle outlined in white on a grey background. The image is a blown-out bright source at the center, with 8, double columned reddish white diffraction spikes. The center of this bright source is outlined with a vertical box, tilted slightly to the left, with two diagonal lines leading to the second panel. This shows a view of both Alpha Centauri A at the bottom and Alpha Centauri B at the top, both with orange star icons over each star. The star icons are surrounded by mottled red and white blotches. The bottom star is outlined with a white square with two diagonal lines leading to the third panel. Within a large white circle there is a blurry red-toned field with an orange star icon and central black circle outlined in white marking the location of Alpha Cen A. A bright orange blob at 9 o’clock in relation to the star is labeled “S1” and circled.

Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (Webb MIRI Image Detail)

This 3-panel image captures NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observational search for a planet around the nearest Sun-like star, Alpha Centauri A.

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Details

Last Updated
Sep 04, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Artwork Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Robert Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

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