There can be a habitable world the closest solar twin of the sun.
In the complex space, which was inhabited by the Alpha Centauri Triple Star system, JWST has just recognized the presence of a huge exoplanet, the Alpha Centauri A, the sunniest of the three stars.
In addition, this exoplanet is in the habitable zone of the star – the perfect distance from the star for liquid water to the pool.
But wait – there is more. The proof of the prospective world, which is currently known as Alpha Centauri, was discovered using direct imaging in a significant breakthrough for exoplanet studies.
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“If this were confirmed, the potential planet, which can be seen in Alpha Centauri A webb image, would mark a new milestone for exoplanet screening efforts,” says astrophysicist Aniket Sanghi from California Institute of Technology.
“Of all the planets shown directly, this would be the closest star to be seen. It is also the most similar temperature and age as the huge planets in our solar system and the closest to our home, the earth.”
The Alpha Centauri system is only 4 light years away, a triple system from the binary couple Alpha Centauri a and Alpha Centauri B, which circle through the Red Dwarf Star Proxima Centauri at a greater distance.
Other exoplanets are already known in the system. Three were found to circle Proxima Centauri, including one within the habitable zone of the star. But the conditions for red dwarf stars – who tend to tend to stormy – can be less hospitable than those around stars like the sun.
The detection of worlds in the central binary was more difficult to achieve.
“Since this system is so close to us, all exoplanets found offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own,” says astronomer Charles Beichman, director of NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at CalTech.
“Nevertheless, these are incredibly challenging observations that are to be made, even with the most powerful space telescope in the world because these stars move so brightly, narrowly and quickly over the sky.”
To date, Alpha Centauri B remains without a well -known world. However, shimmering was discovered by some in the orbit around Alpha Centauri a, the brightest of the three stars and the same G-Type class as The Sun.
In 2021, a team of astronomers under the direction of Kevin Wagner from the University of Arizona announced a preliminary detection of an exoplanet in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A, which was identified on the basis of direct imaging.
Most exoplanets are found using indirect methods, e.g.
Sanghi, Beichman and her colleagues used JWST to search for further evidence of this world, and accepted their first observations in August 2024 and used a coronagraph to mask the light of Alpha Centauri a. After picking up the light from Alpha Centaur B, their results showed a weak point source, which twice the distance from Alma Centauri, as it is from the removal of Alma Centauri, from the electrose, from the monkey from the electrical core.
However, the follow-up observations carried out in February and April 2025 did not result in any such object.
“We are faced with the fall of a missing planet!” Sanghi explained. “In order to examine this puzzle, we used computer models to simulate millions of potential lanes and collect the knowledge when we saw the planet, and when we didn't.”
These simulations also included the sighting of Wagner and his team. In about half of the simulations, the exoplanet was too close to the star to fulfill, and drowned his presence by all the bright light and supported the case for Alpha Centauri.
This world, according to the researchers, would have a radius of about 1 to 1.1 Jupiter, a mass between 90 and 150 earth, comparable to the 95 earth mass of Saturn and a orbit at about double ground distance, precisely in the habitable zone.
This series of properties describes a world that should be a gas giant that questions its potential habitability. However, gas giants in the solar system are lousy with moons that could have habitable conditions – so the nature of the exoplanet does not rule out life around Alpha Centauri A.
However, more work has to be done to confirm Alpha Centauri's existence and find out how the devil even formed in the complex gravitational environment of the Alpha Centauri system.
“Its existence in a system of two closely separated stars would question our understanding of how planets form, survive and develop in chaotic environments,” says Sanghi.
The finding is detailed in two papers The astrophysical journal letters. They can be found here and here.