astronomy facts Article
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an Overview About Facts Astronomy
By Henry Diaz
Thank you for choosing to read this paper, it was written specifically to be of aid to you.
How many facts can you think of? Realize that the universe contains one times 10 to the 22nd stars, that's a one followed by a string of 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. This article, which presents facts, certainly won't contain every fact. But these are interesting facts.
Let's take a look at this subset of facts †the brightest stars as seen from Earth. That's discounting the Sun which is about 250,000 times closer than the next nearest star. The sun is so bright that it washes out all of the other stars in the daylight sky. Keep in mind that in the scale for the magnitudes given, lower numbers are brighter. In the scale we'll use the sun is 26.73, and the moon is -12.6. All righty then, here's the top five list.
#5 is Vega, which means eagle or vulture in Arabic. As seen from Earth its magnitude is .03. When looking at these facts remember that brightest from Earth doesn't mean largest or brightest. The sun is only a moderately bright star, but because of its proximity
to the Earth it appears to be so bright.
#4 goes to Rigel Kentaurus, or foot of the centaur. It sits about 4 light-years from Earth and has a magnitude of -.01.
At #3, by the known facts is Arcturus. The name means guardian of the bear in Greek. It's 37 light-years distant from our home on Earth.
Canopus comes in at #2. 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. It has a -.62 magnitude as seen by humans on this planet.
#1 is Sirius, meaning scorching in Greek. Because it's the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, it's also called the Dog Star.. It's only 9 light years from Earth. That's second closest of these top five. But from Earth it has a magnitude of -1.44. That makes it easily the brightest star as seen in the night sky.
facts go way beyond this. But consider it next time you see the stars in the night sky.
Your time is greatly appreciated thanks for reading this article.
The torment that so many young women know, bound hand and foot by love and motherhood, without having forgotten their former dreams. ~Simone de Beauvoir
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