At a distance of only 25 trillion miles, the Alpha Centauri star system is a prime target in humanity's search for life outside our Solar System.

Astronomers would like to know what kind of environment exists around the two stars in Alpha Centauri that closely resemble our Sun.

To learn about this, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has been monitoring the Alpha Centauri system every six months for over a decade.

Chandra is the only X-ray observatory capable of resolving the two Sun-like stars to determine which star is doing what.

A new study indicates these two stars are likely not pummeling any orbiting planets with large amounts of X-ray radiation.

This is promising news for the sustainability of life on any planets astronomers find around these two nearby stars in the future.

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