Alpha Centauri (a Cen), also known as Rigil Kent (the "Centaur's Foot") or Toliman, is the closest star system to the Solar System at . It consists of three stars: the pair Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B and a small and faint red dwarf, Alpha Centauri C, better known as Proxima Centauri, that may be gravitationally bound to the other two. (Beta Centauri, or ß Centauri, should not be confused with Alpha Centauri B, and is a separate, trinary, system of its own.) To the unaided eye, the two main components appear as a single object of an apparent visual magnitude of -0.27, forming the brightest star in the southern constellation Centaurus and the third-brightest star in the night sky, only outshone by Sirius and Canopus.