How many astronomy facts can you think of? Consider that there are somewhere around 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe, that’s a one followed by 22 zeros. Now realize that many of those stars are surrounded by plants. Now think about all the moons that orbit the planets, and the comets, and the asteroids, and everything else in the universe. It’s a lot to consider. Not every piece of information can be presented here. But these are interesting facts.
Let’s take a look at this subset of astronomy facts – the brightest stars as seen from Earth. The son, about 250,000 times closer than the next star, isn’t counted here. The sun is so bright that it washes out all of the other stars in the daylight sky. For the purposes of this discussion, lower numbers for brightness mean a brighter star. The sun would be about -26.73, while the full moon is -12.6. All righty then, here’s the top five list.
#5 goes to Vega, Arabic for vulture. As seen from Earth its magnitude is .03. Overall, for this discussion of astronomy facts, the truly brightest star may not appear to be so from her. The sun is only a moderately bright star, but because of its proximity to the Earth it appears to be so bright.
#4 is the Arabic foot of the centaur, Rigel Kentaurus. It’s about four light years from Earth with a magnitude of -.01.
At #3, remember this is set in stone as one of the many astronomy facts we have, is Arcturus. The name means guardian of the bear in Greek. Arcturus is 37 light-years from Earth.
Canopus sits at number two. Named for the pilots of Jason’s vessel in Jason and the Argonauts, this star is the brightest of all of these top five. But because of its distance, 313 light-years from Earth, it only appears to be second brightest. -.62 is its magnitude is seen from the planet Earth.
#1 is Sirius, meaning scorching in Greek. It’s also called the Dog Star because it’s the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog.). Only 9 light-years separate Sirius and the earth, that’s the second nearest in this top five list. At -1.44 magnitude it’s the brightest star we can see from Earth.
This information doesn’t even scratch the surface of astronomy facts. But consider it next time you see the stars in the night sky.
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