Crash Course Astronomy: Multiple Star Systems

The stars are not as they seem. The nearest one is tens of trillions of kilometers away, a distance so terrible that the might and power of Alpha Centauri is reduced to a faint spark that can be washed away by the lights of a nearby city. Distance shrinks details, too. Alpha Centauri is not one star, but two: one very much like the Sun, though slightly larger, orbiting and orbited by another that is somewhat fainter, cooler, and more orange. There's also a third star, Proxima Centauri, which orb...