Arcturus, the Brightest Star in the Northern Hemisphere

Arcturus is the fourth brightest star in the sky.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Arcturus is a red giant star just 37 light years from Earth. This is the brightest star fourth in the sky, and brightest in the northern hemisphere.

Reported from Earth Sky, Arcturus is the alpha star of Boötes the Herdsman, a conical constellation. This star lies far enough north in the celestial dome to be visible during some parts of the night for most of the year to Northern Hemisphere observers.

On a late spring night, you might see Arcturus bright orange flashed high overhead. Arcturus rises high in the sky just after the summer sun sets. Autumn watchers had to wake up early because the sun was setting at midnight.

In winter, the best time to see it is in the early hours of the morning. Arcturus, unlike other bright stars in the night sky, has no luminous neighbors. in spring, Arcturus ruled the sky, and until the Summer Triangle swept the eastern sky, Arcturus ruled.

The brightest star north of the celestial equator

The celestial equator is the line that extends above the Earth’s equator. It divides the sky into northern and southern hemispheres in the same way that Earth’s equator does.

Sirius, Canopus, and Alpha Centauri, the three brightest stars in the sky, are all south of the celestial equator. Meanwhile Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern sky. This star is only slightly brighter than Vega, the second brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere.

Due to its fame, some people believe Polaris, the North Star, is the brightest star in the sky. However, it is a bit dim only around the 50th brightest.

Can be observed during the day

Jean-Baptiste Morinof France used a telescope to observe Arcturus at noon in 1635, less than three decades after the telescope’s development. Apart from the sun and a rare supernova, this is the first time the star has been seen telescopically during the day.

Arcturus is sometimes referred to as the Dragon in China. Arcturus was a very important navigational star for the natives of the Hawaiian Islands and other Polynesians because it passed directly overhead.

Arcturus a large and ancient creature

Arcturus is probably older than our sun. When the sun grows into a red giant, it will become a star similar to Arcturus.

Arcturus has a diameter of about 25 times the diameter of our sun. Arcturus emits more than 100 times the light of our sun in visible light due to its enormous size. Arcturus is about 200 times more powerful than the sun in terms of infrared and other frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. This orange star has a slightly larger mass than our sun.

The reddish or orange color of Arcturus indicates its warmth, which is about 7,300 degrees Fahrenheit (about 4,000 degrees Celsius). The temperature makes it thousands of degrees cooler than the sun’s surface.

Arcturus is considered an ancient star. According to scientists, these stars were not originally part of the Milky Way, but came from dwarf satellite galaxies whose stars have been incorporated into the Milky Way.

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