Rigil Kentaurus

Its story

Rigil Kentaurus, the «foot of the centaur», is the closest Sun-like star to our own: at just 4.3 light-years away, its glow takes only a little over four years to cross the void and reach the Earth. It anchors the triple Alpha Centauri system, set in the southern constellation Centaurus, beyond the reach of most of mainland European skies. Ptolemy already catalogued it in the second century, and southern navigators used it for centuries to find their bearing toward the pole on a starless night.