Alpha Centauri

Perhaps some were so disappointed by the false alarm in 2012, when another group claimed to have found an exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system, no one wanted to get their hopes up.

The Alpha Centauri system -- composed of three stars orbiting one another -- is only 4.4 light-years away, a cosmic stone's throw from us.

Apart from the sun and the Alpha Centauri system, which star - so faint it was not discovered until 1916 - is closest to the Earth?

A study has shown that habitable rocky planets are likely to have formed in the Alpha Centauri system, a trio of stars 4.37 light years, or 25.8 trillion miles, from Earth.

Sirius, Canopus, Alpha Centauri system, Arcturus, Vega, Capella system, Rigel, Procyon, Achernar, Betelgeuse

The Alpha Centauri system, located roughly 4.3 light-years from Earth, consists of three stars - Alpha Centauri A, B, and Proxima Centauri.

Last April, billionaire Yuri Milner announced a $100 million initiative to test the feasibility of sending tiny spacecraft on a 20-year journey to the Alpha Centauri system at 20% the speed of light (S&T: Aug.

The Alpha Centauri system is no stranger to claims of exoplanets.

Other stories made the list because they filled our sleepy heads with fascinating questions: Will we ever visit the planet that has been discovered in the Alpha Centauri system, just a few light-years away?

Finding a rocky planet in the Alpha Centauri system settled a decades-long debate about whether the system's three stars hosted planets.

The Alpha Centauri system would be a little brighter, magnitude 9.7.