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NASA's Webb Finds New Evidence for Planet Around Closest Solar Twin

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August 07, 2025 11:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2025-135
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.

Summary

Data shows planet could be a gas giant, orbiting 1 to 2 times the distance between Sun and Earth.

The Alpha Centauri System, the closest star system to our own solar system, has made several appearances in science fiction and pop culture, mostly as a symbol for potential future interstellar travel or even as home to planets teeming with life. However, reality is a little different than what Hollywood has dreamed up.

This chaotic system contains two Sun-like stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and a faint red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the only star of the system confirmed to host three confirmed planets.

New observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are now providing the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant planet surrounding Alpha Centauri A.

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News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-03127. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.

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