Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri (also known as Rigil Kentaurus) is a system with with three stars (Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri) that is 4.243 light-years away from Earth. It is often depicted to have habitable planets in fiction because Alpha Centauri A & B have similar spectral types, age, star type, and probable stable orbits.

Alpha Centauri in science fiction

• The events of James Cameron's 2010 film Avatar take place on Pandora, a moon orbiting the fictional gas giant Polyphemus in orbit of Alpha Centauri.
• Proxima Centauri is an Earth Alliance colony in Babylon 5.
• Alpha Centauri has two habitable planets (Alpha Centauri III and Proxima Centauri II) that are Earth colonies in Star Trek. Alpha Centauri is also one of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets.
• As one would expect, the events of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri take place on a Planet in the Alpha Centauri system