What exactly is the North Star?

Answer 1

The North Star, or Polaris, is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, the little bear (also known as the Little Dipper). As viewed by observers in the Northern Hemisphere, Polaris occupies a special place. The point in the night sky where the projection of the earth's axis lies is known as the North Celestial Pole (NCP). As the earth rotates on its axis (once every 24 hours), the stars in the northern sky appear to revolve around the NCP. Polaris lies roughly one half degree from the NCP, so this particular star appears to remain stationary hour after hour and night after night.

Answer 2

Hi Trex!

The title "north star" is given to the nearest bright star to the north pole in the sky.

In our era, that star is Polaris (so named because it sits near the north pole). Polaris is so close to the pole that, to the unaided eye, it seems always to lie exactly north and you can navigate by it.

Polaris won't always be the north star, though, and it was not in the distant past. The ancient Egyptians saw the star Thuban, in the tail of the constellation Draco the Dragon, as their north star when they built the pyramids. Thuban is much dimmer than Polaris, but the Egyptians noticed that it did not move in the sky, and worshiped Thuban accordingly. Thuban was even closer, at its closest approach to the pole, than Polaris is today.

As the earth continues to move, other stars will take their turns as north star. After the year 10000, the bright star Deneb will move into place, and in the 14000s it will be time for Vega, one of the two brightest stars in the northern sky.

By the way, there is currently no south star, but millennia in the future there certainly will be one, Canopus, the second-brightest star in the entire sky. After 14000, when Vega is north star, Canopus will stand as an even more brilliant south star.

Answer 3

The north star is actually two stars that trade positions almost directly above the north pole. They appear to trade places over a long (very long) period of time due to a slight wobble in the earth's rotation. Right now its Polaris, but in many thousands of years from now it will be Vega.

Answer 4

It is a star named Polaris that is close to the celsetial north pole, and for that reason is frequently used for navigation.

Answer 5

I think is a star that marks the nort pole and pirates and navigators used the star to locate their destiny!

I wish this help you!

Andrea Ruiz