Alpha Centauri, part of the three-star system closet to our own, is often posed in science fiction as humanity's first hop into the beyond—or perhaps its first meeting of the minds with alien intelligences. For the first time, scientists have strong evidence that Alpha Centauri A has a planet in orbit, a gas giant about twice as far from its star as Earth is from the sun. The observations are from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

If confirmed, the planet would be the closest to Earth that orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. However, because the planet candidate is a gas giant, scientists say it would not support life as we know it.

"With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than o

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