What Are The Most Famous Stars?

Thursday, February 12, 2015

What Are The Most Famous Stars?

Betelgeuse was the first star directly imaged — besides our own Sun, of course. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland (STScI), NASA and ESA

Hollywood has a bit of an obsession with stars — just ask those people who are huge fans of George Clooney or Julia Roberts. But here on Universe Today, we focus more on stars in the Universe.

There are untold billions of these celestial objects, but some of them are more famous to Earthlings than other ones. Here is a sampling of some of the more well-known stars.

Polaris

Also known as the North Star, it’s been used as a navigational tool in the northern hemisphere for centuries. Interesting enough, it hasn’t always been the north star. That’s because Earth’s axis wobbles over thousands of years and points in different directions. But for now, it’s our guide. More scientifically, we call it Alpha Ursae Minoris and it is part of the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear). It’s more than 430 light-years away from Earth.

Time exposure centered on Polaris, the North Star. Notice that the closer stars are to Polaris, the smaller the circles they describe. Stars at the edge of the frame make much larger circles. Credit: Bob King

Sirius

Also known as the Dog Star, because it’s the brightest star in Canis Major (the big dog). In ancient times, it was seen as a signal for the summer and (in Egypt) that the Nile flooding was nigh. It’s easy to spot as it’s actually the brightest star in the sky. It’s also close, at about 8.6 light-years. A companion star, Sirius B, was discovered in 1862.

Alpha Centauri system

It’s one of the closest systems to Earth, at just a shade over four light-years. In 2012, astronomers discovered an Earth-sized planet around Alpha Centauri B (unfortunately, it’s likely too hot to host life). The closest one to Earth is called Proxima Centauri. The grouping is in the constellation Centaurus.

Artist’s impression of the planet around Alpha Centauri B. Credit: ESO

Betelgeuse

Fans of Tim Burton may remember a little film called Beetlejuice in the 1980s, but it bears little resemblance to the star. What excites astronomers about Betelgeuse is it will one day go supernova; we just don’t know exactly when. It’s a bright red supergiant star that’s easy to spot in the constellation Orion, and is roughly 650 light-years from Earth.

Rigel

Another famous star in Orion is Rigel, which is a bright blue star. It’s Orion’s brightest star and has at least two companion stars with it that pop out in powerful telescopes. It’s a young star, only 10 million years old, and is also expected to go supernova when it reaches the end of its life. It’s located about 770 light-years from Earth.

An Orionid meteor slashes across the top of the frame directly above the constellation Orion early this morning October 22, 2014. Details: 24mm lens, f/2.8, 30-seconds at ISO 1600. Credit: Bob King

Vega

Vega is another bright blue star that anchors the otherwise faint Lyra constellation (the Harp). Along with Deneb (from Cygnus) and Altair (from Aquila), it is a part of the Summer Triangle in the Northern hemisphere. It once used to be the North Star (imagine how awesome that would have been for navigation) and is only about 25 light-years from Earth.

Pleiades

Technically this is a famous star cluster, but nevertheless: the “seven stars” are spaced far enough part that you resolve them easily with binoculars or a telescope. (There are actually far more than seven stars, but that’s how the ancients referred to it). The Pleiades are part of the Taurus constellation and coincidentally, are near in the sky to another star cluster known as the Hyades. They’re roughly 450 light-years from Earth.

Pleiades, also known as M45, is a prominent open star cluster in the sky. Image Credit: Jamie Ball

Antares

So called because it was considered by the ancients to be a “rival to Mars” (or Ares), Antares does indeed have some resemblance to the Red Planet in the sky. It’s red and also happens to be located close to the ecliptic, the imaginary band in the sky where the planets, Moon and Sun move. At over 600 light-years from Earth, Antares is in the constellation Scorpius.

Canopus

The second-brightest star in the sky, Canopus is over 300 light-years away from Earth. It’s commonly used for spacecraft to orient themselves in space, since it is so bright compared to the stars surrounding it. It’s in the constellation Carina.

Universe Today has articles on what is the North Star and types of stars. Here’s another article about the 10 brightest stars. Astronomy Cast has an episode on famous stars.

About Elizabeth Howell

Elizabeth Howell is the senior writer at Universe Today. She also works for Space.com, Space Exploration Network, the NASA Lunar Science Institute, NASA Astrobiology Magazine and LiveScience, among others. Career highlights include watching three shuttle launches, and going on a two-week simulated Mars expedition in rural Utah. You can follow her on Twitter @howellspace or contact her at her website.

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

UFO SIGHTINGS PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'." The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The acronym "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short." Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", "unidentifiable object", and "flying saucer". The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he described the objects' shape as being somewhat disc-like or saucer-like, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs". In popular usage the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft. and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some investigators prefer to use such terms as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP) or anomalous phenomena, as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

UFO PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

UFO - Unidentified Flying Object An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, and have become popular subjects in fiction. While UFOs are often later identified, sometimes identification may not be possible owing to the usually low quality of evidence related to UFO sightings (generally anecdotal evidence and eyewitness accounts). Stories of fantastical celestial apparitions have been told since antiquity, but the term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was officially created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and/or "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2). During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).

Photos of Nature | Nature Photography What is The Universe

Photos of Nature | Nature Photography What is The Universe

Thursday, February 12, 2015