Located in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur) at a distance of 4.3 light-years, the Alpha Centauri group is made up of the binary formed by the stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, plus the faint red dwarf Alpha Centauri C, also known as Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system to Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope has delivered this view of Alpha Centauri A (on the left) and Alpha Centauri B (on the right). The image was captured by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) in optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Compared to the Sun, Alpha Centauri A is of the same stellar type G2, and slightly bigger, while Alpha Centauri B, a K1-type star, is slightly smaller. They orbit a common center of gravity once every 80 years, with a minimum distance of about 11 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.