Polaris
The North Star
Basic Information
Distance...
- 447.08 Light Years Away
- Compared to the Sun ( 8 Light Minutes Away), Polaris is much much farther away. The distances are very different.
Location...
- Polaris is apart of a constellation, Ursa Minora. This may also be know as the "Little Dipper". Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation. Polaris can be seen year-round, and at all hours in the night in the Northern Hemisphere. It is not visible to anyone below one degree of the equator. Sorry Southern Hemisphere.
- In a Deerfield Night sky, it would be easy to pick out. First you would look out in the North direction sky, once you find a bright star in this direction, you can confirm that is Polaris by seeing if it is apart of the Little Dipper.
Names...
- Pole Star
- Alruccabah
- Cynosura
- Phoenice
- Mismar
- HR 424
- HD 8890
Magnitudes...
The absolute magnitude measures the luminosity of an object in space. The apparent magnitude measures the brightness of something in space from Earths perspective.
Absolute: -3.50
Apparent: 2.00
Comparing to our sun, Polaris is a much brighter star. But it may not look as bright due to how far it is. The sun is extremely closer.
Lifecycle
Lifespan...
- The North Star will only spend about a couple thousand years as a yellow supergiant. Once transitioned into a red supergiant, it can live up to four million years. The star is never always going to be like we see it today. The star will live millions of years, but be in different forms.
How old?
- Polaris is known to be around 70 million years old.
The Past, The Present, The Future
- The North Star has been around forever, but it was not always known as Polaris. Thousands of years ago, it was known as Thuban by the Egyptians. In the Middle Ages, it became very close to the poles, which led it to become a polar star.
- March 24, 2100 ... Polaris will be as close to us as ever.
- Polaris will most likely follow the routine death of Supergiant's, unless something completely bizarre in our universe happens. It will ultimately lead to a supernova, where Polaris will blow itself up in an explosion.
- This then will turn into a neutron star or black hole. All the physical matter of the star will be sent into the universe, and will make more stars and planets.
Cultural Story
History...
- The North Star was first documented by Claudius Ptolemy in 169 AD. The Ancient Egyptians also had studied this star, stating that it was apart of a female hippo's body in the night sky.
- Many people are under the impression that it is the brightest star. Which is completely false. It ranks at the 48th brightest star.
Important to Science?
- Polaris, the North Star's location is very important. This star sits directly above the North Pole. Which means, when in the Northern Hemisphere, at night you will always know which way is North, if you can find Polaris.
Important to Me?
- One of the reasons I chose this star was because it really was the only star I pretty much knew of other than the Sun, and I really did not know anything about it. So I decided that I should get to learn a star, that I see almost every night.
Seen by naked eye --> Up Close
Classification
Spectra...
The spectrum of stars allows us to graph the amount of light given off of a star, or how bright it is, at different wavelengths.
Spectral Type: F7lb
In comparison to the sun, which is a G2V, this means they are different in color, temperature, luminosity, characteristics and radius.
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/startype.html
H-R Diagram
Where is it?
In the diagram it fits into the yellow category. It was one of the brightest super giants so it is higher up in the chart. It's surface temperature is anywhere from 5,000 - 7,000 'C. As we know the sun is very large, but in reality it is not that big. Its diameter is about 900,000 miles. Polaris is 46 times bigger than the sun. Which means, the diameter of the North Star is almost 40,000,000 miles. The Earths diameter is only 8,000 miles. Put that into perspective...
https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-and-answers/submit-paragraph-explaining-location-stars-plotted-whether-matches-roman-numeral-designati-q29359134
Possibility of Life
Communication...
- So we are about 500 light years away from North Star. The farthest probe we have sent into space reached over 13 billion miles away. One light year is around 5,878,625,370,000 miles. Now multiply that by 500. If their was a planet orbiting the North Star, I am not sure how we would reach out to them. The distance in between us is just mind blowing.
How we are seen...
- I am not too sure on how I would want other planets to see us. We have done a lot of good things on Earth, but at the same time, we have done a lot of bad. These bad things continue to get worse and worse. We have to come together as a planet and try to fix them before its too late. I would hope that the planet sees us for the good, but there is already too much bad on Earth. And this is even if we could reach out. Unless they are already watching.
Video
Polaris: The North Star
Citations
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-far-away-is-polaris
https://www.space.com/15567-north-star-polaris.html
https://answersingenesis.org/astronomy/stars/polaris-brief-history-of-current-north-star/
https://www.spaceanswers.com/astronomy/when-was-polaris-first-discovered-as-the-north-star/#:~:text=Has%20Polaris%20always%20been%20known%20as%20the%20North%20Star%3F&text=Polaris%20was%20first%20catalogued%20in%20169%20AD%20by%20Claudius%20Ptolemy.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/north-star.htm
https://www.kvnf.org/post/western-slope-skies-north-star-myths-and-musings#stream/0
https://www.star-facts.com/polaris/
https://cas.sdss.org/dr6/en/proj/basic/spectraltypes/stellarspectra.asp#:~:text=Evaluation-,Spectra%20of%20Stars,bright%20it%20appears%20from%20Earth.
