Polaris, also known as the North Star, Alpha Ursae Minoris or Star of Arcady, is the brightest star in Ursa Minor constellation. It is the closest bright star to the North Celestial Pole.
What is the leading edge of the Polaris constellation?
The leading edge (defined by the stars Dubhe and Merak ) is referenced to a clock face, and the true azimuth of Polaris worked out for different latitudes. The apparent motion of Polaris towards and, in the future, away from the celestial pole, is due to the precession of the equinoxes.
What type of star is Polaris?
STAR SYSTEM. Polaris is not a single star, but a multiple star system. The main component, Alpha Ursae Minoris Aa, is an evolved yellow supergiant star belonging to the spectral class F7. It is 2,500 times more luminous than the Sun, 4.5 times more massive, and has a radius 46 times that of the Sun.
What is the relationship between the Stars in Polaris?
The single point of light that we see as Polaris is actually a triple star system ; three stars orbiting a common center of mass. The primary star, Polaris A, is a supergiant more than two thousand times brighter than our sun. The next closest companion is Polaris Ab, a main-sequence star. Polaris Ab orbits 2 billion miles from Polaris A.
Polaris actually is part of a binary (two) star system. Of the stars nearest to our Sun, about half are known to be in multiple systems (two or more stars).
Where is Polaris located on the sky?
For observers at the equator, Polaris sits right on the horizon. The star clmbs higher in the sky the farther north you go and drops below the horizon for observers in the southern hemisphere. Polaris was used as the pole star by navigators at least from Late Antiquity.
This begs the question “Where is the star Polaris located in the sky?”
Polaris is located in the constellation Ursa Minor, which contains the group of stars that make up the “Little Dipper.” Polaris is the star in the end of the Little Dipper handle.
How close is Polaris to the north celestial pole?
It is very close to the north celestial pole, making it the current northern pole star. The revised Hipparcos parallax gives a distance to Polaris of about 433 light-years (133 parsecs ), while calculations by some other methods derive distances up to 35% closer.