Astronomers may find ‘avatar planet’ at Ster Alpha Centauri A

This article was last updated on August 8, 2025

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Astronomers may find ‘avatar planet’ at Ster Alpha Centauri A

Astronomers think they have discovered a new planet at one of our neighbor stars. Not one that could exist on, but the find is special, says astronomer Lucas Ellerbroek. “Especially since it has succeeded in visiting the celestial body.”

Whether the dot, observed by the James Webb telescope, is really a planet, still has to be confirmed by independent observations.

Planets for other stars are called exoplanets. Almost 6,000 have been discovered since 1992, but they are rarely as relatively close as this. The new exoplanet with the name S1 is a gas giant, such as Jupiter, and revolves around the star Alpha Centauri A.

That makes this news exciting for science fiction enthusiasts. The fictional Moon Pandora, where the Avatar films take place, revolves around exactly such a gas giant and also at the same star, Alpha Centauri A.

Cosmic back garden

The find for the imagination also appeals to astronomer, says Ellerbroek. If only because Alpha Centauri A is one of our neighboring stars, even though it is still four years of flying with the speed of light.

“The fact that the star is in our cosmic back garden makes more research possible in the future. This promises a lot of good things, although there are also limits of what is possible with the best telescopes,” puts the astronomer into perspective.

There are several ways to find exoplanets. In this case a direct imaging technique is used. By placing a mask over the star, much darker objects in the neighborhood become visible.

That it worked is extra handsome, given that all the background noise that the James Webb had to do with. Alpha Centauri A is part of a star system together with two other stars, Alpha Centauri B and Proxima Centauri. “That gives a lot of extra light in the neighborhood and there is a lot of junk in the planet disk around such a star. That makes it more difficult to find planets between them.”

It took two years to detect the new planet and help from other telescopes was needed. And the find is not yet final: S1 is only a candidate-Exoplanet. “Before we are really sure that it is really a planet, the discovery must be confirmed, preferably by a different telescope.”

Does not exist

Earlier two exoplanets and a candidate planet were found at the weak star Proxima Centauri. That happened with other techniques. In 2012 there was also a possible planet at Alpha Centauri B, but later research did not exist.

If the now observed white dot is indeed a planet, then it is a lot closer than all the other exoplanets who are recorded with direct imaging, even in the ‘livable zone’. S1 also revolves around a star that looks like our sun in terms of age and temperature.

Yet, according to the researchers, such a gas giant is not a place where life can occur. But that one or more moons turn around, such as in Avatar, is not impossible according to Ellerbroek. “Only such an exomaniac is much harder to find.”