4.3 light-years
Alpha Centauri is a triple star in the Centaurus constellation, the fifth brightest star from Earth's view, and the closest star to Earth, besides the sun. Alpha Centauri's co … ordinates are 14h 39m 36.4951s, −60° 50′ 02.308″. Alpha Centauri is the third brightest star from Earth's view. It is in the Centaurus constellation and only visible from Earth's southern hemisphere. It is the nearest bright … star to our solar system, 4.34 light years away. An Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the constellation Centaurus. The distance from NYC to LA is 3935.55 km (2445.43 mi) ; a light year is 9.4607×1012 km; Alpha Centauri is 4.37 light years away or 4.13*1013 km; that means that each km between NYC and LA represents 1.05*1010 km of the distance between Earth and Alpha Centauri, or that distances are scaled by a factor of 9.52*10-11. If the softball is located in NYC, then Alpha Centauri would be located in Los Angeles. Voyager 1 is the furthest man-made object from Earth; as of November 2012, it is 123 astronomical units away from the Earth. Proxima is the closest star to Earth. Faint red Proxima Centauri – at only 3,100 K and 500 times less bright than our sun – is nearly a fifth of a light year from Alpha Centauri A and B. This great distance is what calls into question its status as part of a triple star system. Alpha Centauri’s surface temperature is a few degrees Kelvin less than our sun (that is, about 5770 k), but its greater diameter (about 25% more than the sun) and the overall larger surface area gives it a luminosity nearly 1.6 times that of our star. The third star, which may or may not be part of the system, is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.22 light-years from Earth and is the closest star other than the sun. Alpha Centauri A and B orbit a common center of gravity every 80 years. The average distance between them is about 11 astronomical units (AU) — about the same distance as the sun is to Uranus. These stars are an average of 4.3 light-years from Earth Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our own, is still 39,900,000,000,000 km away. (Or 271,000 AU .) When we talk about the distances to the stars, we no longer use the AU, or Astronomical Unit; commonly, the light year is used. A light year is the distance light travels in one year-it is equal to 9.46 x 10 12 km. Alpha Centauri A & B are roughly 4.35 light years away from us Alpha Centauri B is in an elliptical orbit that takes it to 11 astronomical units of star A every 80 Earth years. The third star, Proxima, is 15,000 AU, or nearly a quarter of a light-year, from the other two stars. The stars of Alpha Centauri can best be seen from latitudes below about 29 degrees North.  But it is actually a triple star system. The two brightest components Alpha Centauri A and B form a binary. They orbit each other in 80 years with a mean separation of 23 astronomical units (1 astronomical unit = 1 AU = distance between the Sun and Earth). The third member of the system Alpha Centauri C lies 13,000 AU from A and B, or 400 times the distance between the Sun and Neptune. For the binary Alpha Centauri A and B, their closest approach is 11 AU, so the limit for planetary orbits is at about 2 astronomical units. Comparing with our system, we see that both Alpha Centauri A and B might hold four inner planets like we have Mercury (0.4 AU), Venus (0.7 AU), Earth (1 AU) and Mars (1.5 AU). It is one astronomical unit, 1 AU. The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is the definition of astronomical unit. It is equal to about 149,597,871 km or 93,955,807.3 … miles. I think that proxima centauri is approximately 4 light years away from the sun. One light year is equal to 5,865,696,000,000 miles. So, 5,865,696,000,000x4 = 23,462,78 … 4,000,000 Proxima Centauri is approximately 23,462,748,000,000 miles away from the sun. 3 people found this useful. The closest star to Earth, other than the sun, is Alpha Centauri at some 4.4 light-years away. Scaling the Earth-sun distance at one inch places this star at 4.4 miles (7 kilometers) distant. Quite by coincidence, the number of astronomical units in one light-year and the number of inches in one mile are virtually the same. For general reference, there are 63,000 astronomical units in one light-year, and 63,000 inches in one mile.
http://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_au's_from_earth_Alpha_Centauri https://relativeastronomy.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/how-far-is-alpha-centauri/ http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/alpha-centauri-is-the-nearest-bright-star http://www.space.com/18090-alpha-centauri-nearest-star-system.html http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/nearest_star_info.html http://www.space.com/18097-alpha-centauri-stars-planet-explained-infographic.html http://aether.lbl.gov/www/classes/p139/speed/Alpha-Centauri.html http://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_astronomical_units_is_proxima_centauri_from_the_sun http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-far-is-a-light-year
how many astronomical units away is alpha centauri