Enlarge / The view of Alpha Centauri A & B from the night sky in Chile. (Bright stars to the upper left of the mountain) (credit: ESO)

The nearest star system to the Sun, α Centauri, has been all the rage after the discovery of an Earth-sized world in the habitable zone around the smallest of its three stars, Proxima Centauri. Scientists, however, are equally eager to learn more about the planetary systems around α Centauri’s two larger Sun-like stars, α Centauri A and B. They might offer an environment still more conducive for an Earth-like planet.

Although NASA has plans to eventually develop optical telescopes that might be able to image planets around these stars, some scientists say we should not wait that long. Moreover, these scientists say that, with a modestly sized telescope, we could start looking for Earth-like worlds around Centauri A and B by the end of the decade. To that end, several organizations plan to announce a privately-led, non-profit effort to do just that. The project, titled “Project Blue,” will be announced on Tuesday.

Project Blue takes its name from the famous Pale Blue Dot image taken by Voyager in 1980, when the probe was about 6 billion km from Earth. Our planet filled just a single blue pixel against the vast, black, seemingly endless heavens. Project Blue aims capture such an image of one or more Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone around α Centauri A or B.