Overview

• Initial JWST MIRI coronagraph observations from August 2024 delivered the strongest infrared signal yet of a Saturn-mass, Jupiter-sized candidate orbiting within Alpha Centauri A’s habitable zone.
• Two Webb imaging campaigns in early 2025 did not recover the object, with models indicating it lay too close to its star for detection at those times.
• Orbital simulations show the candidate’s elongated path sweeps through most of the habitable zone, a trajectory that would likely destabilize any smaller rocky planets.
• Researchers plan renewed JWST observations in August 2026 and intend to use NASA’s forthcoming Roman Space Telescope to verify the candidate and refine its orbit.
• Confirmation of the planet would make it the nearest directly imaged world around a Sun-like star and challenge existing models of planet formation in multi-star systems.