Polaris ranks 50th as the brightest star.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Polaris is known as the north star. Polaris is always still, motionless in the sky. How come? This is because Polaris located so close to the north celestial pole, the axis that surrounds the entire northern sky.
Polaris is also not the brightest star in the night sky. This star ranks 50th as the brightest star. Even so, Polaris is easy to spot. Polaris will shine in the northern sky every night from a location in the Northern Hemisphere.
Reported from Earth Sky, Polaris is a constellation that marks the direction north. The right hand will point straight to the east and the left hand will point to the west as it faces Polaris and spreads arms out to the side. You’ll be heading straight south if you turn from Polaris. Polaris is famous for many reasons. One reason is that the star barely moves as other stars revolve around it.
History of Polaris
Polaris has not always been the North Star, and will not always be the North Star. When the Egyptians built the pyramids, the North Star was a famous star called Thuban in the constellation Draco the Dragon.
Our current Polaris is North Star which is good because it is the 50th brightest star in the sky. When Europeans first sailed across the Atlantic nearly five centuries ago, Polaris served as a guide to the north.
The designation of Polaris as the North Star will last for the next thousand years. On March 24, 2100, Polaris will be the object closest to the celestial north pole, the point in the sky directly above Earth’s north axis of rotation.
Polaris is a triple constellation
Polaris is a triple star system, or three stars orbiting a common center of mass. Polaris A, the central star, is a supergiant with a mass nearly six times that of our sun. Polaris Ab is a close partner, orbiting Polaris for 2 billion miles.
Because it is so close to Polaris, it is impossible to catch a glimpse of this star. Polaris B, the third star, is further away.
Polaris is a mortal star, which fluctuates every four days between magnitudes 1.86 and 2.13. This variability has fallen from ten percent to two percent in recent decades, then increased to four percent.
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