<Tr> <Td> ARICNS </Td> <Td> data </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia </Td> <Td> data </Td> </Tr> <P> Alpha Centauri (α Centauri, abbreviated Alpha Cen, α Cen) is the closest star system to the Solar System, being 4.37 light - years (1.34 pc) from the Sun . It consists of three stars: Alpha Centauri A (also named Rigil Kentaurus) and Alpha Centauri B, which form the binary star Alpha Centauri AB, and a small and faint red dwarf, Alpha Centauri C (also named Proxima Centauri), which is loosely gravitationally bound and orbiting the other two at a current distance of about 13,000 astronomical units (0.21 ly). To the unaided eye, the two main components appear as a single point of light with an apparent visual magnitude of − 0.27, forming the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus and is the third - brightest star in the night sky, outshone only by Sirius and Canopus . </P> <P> Alpha Centauri A (α Cen A) has 1.1 times the mass and 1.519 times the luminosity of the Sun, while Alpha Centauri B (α Cen B) is smaller and cooler, at 0.907 times the Sun's mass and 0.445 times its visual luminosity . During the pair's 79.91 - year orbit about a common centre, the distance between them varies from nearly that between Pluto and the Sun (35.6 AU) to that between Saturn and the Sun (11.2 AU). </P>

What is the name of the closest star to the sun