echoAwooo t1_irw3nad wrote
Reply to comment by the_fungible_man in The vast majority of the 150-400 billion stars in the Milky Way haven't been directly detected. Alpha Centauri is the nearest known star to Sol. What is the probability that there are nearer stars that remain undiscovered? by [deleted]
The Centauri Solar Cluster has a high visual magnitude because it's a triple system where Proxima is the smallest of the three suns orbiting the barycenter. Proxima contributes very little light to that high visual magnitude, it's all mostly αCenA and αCenB, the other two stars in the system. A and B both together make it the third brightest star in the sky.
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