Skip to main content

Hubble captures best image yet of our closest binaries, Alpha Centauri A and B

From the Pillars of Creation to the Bubble Nebula, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured its fair share of astonishing images of outer space. Although the most recent image of Alpha Centauri isn’t the most detailed in the telescope’s catalog, it’s the brightest and best image of our neighboring star system yet. It also holds special significance in light of the new discovery of a potentially habitable exoplanet orbiting one of its stars.

Like two cat’s eyes peering inward from the night, the binary system roams around our galactic backyard, just 4.37 light-years away.

Recommended Videos

The Alpha Centauri system actually consists of three stars — the red dwarf Proxima Centauri and the binary group of Alpha Centauri A and B, which orbit each other in a cosmic dance. Last month we discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, which orbits Proxima Centauri, but the new Hubble image snapped the stunning photo of the binary group.

RelatedJuno images reveal that Jupiter’s poles are unlike anything NASA imagined

This isn’t to say that exoplanets haven’t previously been discovered within the binary group — they’ve just tended to tease rather than satisfy the hype. In 2012, astronomers announced the discovery of a planet around Alpha Centauri B. In 2015, a new analysis determined that the data was likely misleading and that the exoplanet probably didn’t exist. That same year, the discovery of another planet was announced with the qualification that it orbited too close to Alpha Centauri B to possibly be habitable.

The image was created by combining visible and near-infrared wavelengths captured by the telescope’s old instrument of choice, the Wide-Field and Planetary Camera 2. Since 2009, NASA and ESA have upgraded to the more technologically advance Wide-Field and Planetary Camera 3.

Dyllan Furness
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dyllan Furness is a freelance writer from Florida. He covers strange science and emerging tech for Digital Trends, focusing…
Range Rover’s first electric SUV has 48,000 pre-orders
Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition

Range Rover, the brand made famous for its British-styled, luxury, all-terrain SUVs, is keen to show it means business about going electric.

And, according to the most recent investor presentation by parent company JLR, that’s all because Range Rover fans are showing the way. Not only was demand for Range Rover’s hybrid vehicles up 29% in the last six months, but customers are buying hybrids “as a stepping stone towards battery electric vehicles,” the company says.

Read more
BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too
BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Read more
Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say
Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.

Read more