Those unfamiliar with all things astronomical sometimes get a little confused when they hear about the closest star to Earth...
Alpha Centauri, also known as Rigel Kentaurus or Rigil Kent or, more rarely, as Toliman, is the brightest star in the Centaurus constellation and the third brightest star in the night sky to the naked eye after Sirius and Canopus.
Today we know that the primary star in the system (Alpha Centauri A) is a yellow star very similar to our Sun, slightly larger and more massive, while the secondary component (Alpha Centauri B) is orange, slightly smaller and more massive. However, both components are stars whose age, according to current models of stellar evolution, would range between 5 and 6 billion years, making them the same age or slightly older than the Sun.
The project Breakthrough Starshot
In 2016, the La Silla Observatory in Chile identified Proxima b, the closest exoplanet known to us today: it orbits in the habitable belt of its own star, Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf located 4.2 light years away. from us, in the direction of the Centaurus constellation.
Proxima Centauri is part of the Alpha Centauri system, a triple system consisting of a yellow dwarf and an orange dwarf very close to each other and from Proxima. Proxima is a red dwarf, probably the most widespread stellar type in the Milky Way