Alpha Centauri Can't Hide Its Planets Forever

We've discovered extrasolar planets hundreds, even thousands of light-years away. However, we have yet to confirm the existence (or lack thereof) of exoplanets in our closest stellar neighbor. And Alpha Centauri is a tempting target beyond its proximity: The star system contains not one, but two stars that are similar to the Sun. Alpha Centauri A is virtually identical to the Sun, and Alpha Centauri B is a bit smaller. But they're both main sequence stars, and that should mean they're both hospitable places for friendly, Earth-like planets to develop. But we don't know yet if there are planets there.

There's hope that things will change, though. Our astronomical abilities improve every day, and there are multiple concerted efforts to observe Alpha Centauri for exoplanets. It's tough to do, considering the two main stars reached their closest approach in 2016. All we know is that A has no planets bigger than 50 Earth masses and that B has no planets bigger than 8 Earth masses. There's plenty of room for an Earth analog to be hanging out around either star. It may be that neither star has what we're looking for. But we have to find out for sure. And soon, we will.