What is the brightest star?
2
Merve Özdemir 2642656843 What is the brightest star? Stars are massive and shining creations which are composed of hydrogen ,helium and smaller amounts of other elements of hot gas. The stars that you can see with your naked eye in the night are belong to the Milky Way Galaxy which is the huge system of stars in Earth’s solar system. Most people think that the brightest star is the sun which is the closest star to the Earth , our source of life. But actually , the truth is really different from the general thought. ‘’Sirius’’ is the brightest star in the Earth’s night sky. It is known for long years that the brightest star is Sirius which has a visual magnitude of 1.46 . I means that it is nearly twice as bright as the next brightest star ( Canopus). The name ‘’Sirius’’ is derived from ancient Greek language.‘’ Its name comes from the Greek word for scorching.’’ (http://space.about.com/od/stars/tp/brighteststars.htm). The other name of this star is‘’Dog Star’’ which reflects the prominence of Sirius in some ancient mythological stories. ‘’ T he heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days " of summer for the ancient Greeks , while to the Polynesians it marked winter and was an important star for navigation around the Pacific Ocean.’’ ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius)
-
Upload
merve-oezdemir -
Category
News & Politics
-
view
36 -
download
3
description
Transcript of What is the brightest star?
Merve Özdemir
2642656843
What is the brightest star?
Stars are massive and shining creations which are composed of hydrogen ,helium and smaller amounts of other elements of hot gas. The stars that you can see with your naked eye in the night are belong to the Milky Way Galaxy which is the huge system of stars in Earth’s solar system. Most people think that the brightest star is the sun which is the closest star to the Earth , our source of life. But actually , the truth is really different from the general thought. ‘’Sirius’’ is the brightest star in the Earth’s night sky.
It is known for long years that the brightest star is Sirius which has a visual magnitude of 1.46 . I means that it is nearly twice as bright as the next brightest star ( Canopus). The name ‘’Sirius’’ is derived from ancient Greek language.‘’ Its name comes from the Greek word for scorching.’’ (http://space.about.com/od/stars/tp/brighteststars.htm). The other name of this star is‘’Dog Star’’ which reflects the prominence of Sirius in some ancient mythological stories. ‘’ The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, while to the Polynesians it marked winter and was an important star for navigation around the Pacific Ocean.’’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius)
Sirius is originally composed of two bright blue stars. The more massive one called Sirius B, consumed its resources and turned into its current state 120 million years ago. The distance between ‘Sirius A’ and ‘Sirius B’ varies between 8.2 and 31.5 AU. Sirius appears bright because of its proximity to the Earth. It is the closest star (after the Sun) that can be seen with the naked eyes. As the Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar system , it will probably increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years. After that time , it will slowly begin to lose its brightness. But it is said that Sirius will continue to be the brightest star fort he next 210 , 000 years.
Contrary to what people think , Sirius is twice as massive as the Sun and 25 times brighter than the Sun. The system is around 300 million years old. Also , Sirius has been known since the ancient Egypt times and it is recorded in the earliest astronomical records.
REFERENCES
1) About.com:Space and Astronomy: Top 10 Brightest Stars. (n.d) Retrieved March 5 , 2014, from http://space.about.com/od/stars/tp/brighteststars.htm
2) Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia: Sirius (n.d) . Retrieved March 5 , 2014 , from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
