Back around 2000 when I first started worldbuilding the Alpha Centauri system for the AlCent Sagas series, astronomical knowledge of the binary star system was limited to the movements of the stars themselves. But now with the advent of the Kepler space telescope, as well as new methods used by ground based telescopes, exoplanets have actually been found orbiting the stars Alpha Centauri A and B, as well as Proxima Centauri. It’s exciting that my suppositions (guesswork) was not too far from the truth as we know it so far. A binary star system only 4 lightyears from Earth, populated with habitable zone planets, provides an excellent setting for the books of my AlCent Sagas series, as well as for my novel Seed of Aldebaran. I like to write my stories using as much known science and technology as I can. Stories featuring technologies just beyond our current reach, using known astrophysics with a little extrapolation, is what makes my books “hard science fiction,” and is what pushes me to keep researching as new knowledge comes to light. You can read about the exoplanets by clicking on the link below –

https://www.openexoplanetcatalogue.com/planet/Alpha%20Centauri%20B%20c/#:~:text=Alpha%20Centauri%20is%20one%20of,around%20a%20Sun%2Dlike%20star.

Novels by James Crawford –

Mariner Valley – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0141N9UXO

Seed of Aldebaran – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SHXTRMP

AlCent Sagas Book One: Formation – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ5C3TQT A Noble Paradise – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QG6LZ10