The most beautiful night sky objects to see. Which star is the brightest in the sky?

To accurately answer this question, you need to know that the Sun belongs to the stars and it is without any doubt the brightest star visible from our Earth.

And then after the daylight comes Sirius, the planet of the dead, which is alpha in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius is the brightest and most mysterious star in the night sky. In ancient Egypt, Sirius had the name Sothis.

You can easily see Sirius in the picture.

The answer to this question will be the name of the star SIRIUS. This star is considered the brightest in the sky. E is visible from both hemispheres of the earth. With the exception of the extreme northern regions. In ancient times, people considered this star holy and worshiped it.SIRIUS.

Sirius - brightest star in the night sky, visible from Earth (in both the northern and southern hemispheres). Sirius is a star of the first magnitude in constellation Canis Major. It is best seen in the night sky in the northern hemisphere in winter. In autumn it appears in the sky in the morning, in spring - only in the evening, then it hides behind the horizon, and in the summer in the northern hemisphere you cannot see it. At this time, it is admired in the southern hemisphere.

The apparent magnitude of Sirius is -1.46. The distance to it is 8.6 light years, which is relatively close for cosmic parameters. That's why the star is so bright!

Of course, the brightest star in the sky is our beloved Sun. Of the stars visible from the northern hemisphere, the brightest is Sirius, the main star of the constellation Canis Major. Behind it are two bright stars: Arcturus - the alpha of the constellation Bootes and Vega - the main star of the constellation Lyra. The stars Capella, Rigel and Procyon are also very bright and beautiful, especially Rigel from the constellation Orion immediately catches the eye with its blueness.

Stars have always attracted the attention of people, who, as a result, began to give these celestial bodies, as well as constellations, names. One of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere of the night sky, which, according to scientists, is at least 230 million years old, is Sirius.

The brightest star we can see in the night sky is Sirius. This star is part of the constellation Canis Major.

In addition, Sirius is one of the stars closest to Earth.

According to various estimates, the age of Sirius ranges from two hundred to three hundred million years.

I can’t say whether it’s in the northern hemisphere or not, but in 2004, astronomers discovered the largest and brightest star on the other side of the Galaxy. This star, which is 45 thousand light years away, has 150 times the mass and 200 times the diameter of our Sun. It is 40 million times brighter than our star. This blue giant is estimated to be very young, less than two million years old. Despite the enormous brightness of the star, it is almost invisible from the ground: 90 percent of the light is absorbed by clouds of cosmic dust and great distances, so that the visible brightness corresponds to the 8th magnitude. Before the discovery of this luminary, called LBV 1806-20, it was believed that there could not be stars more than 120 times the mass of the Sun.

If you answer the question which star is the brightest in the sky, then I will answer Sirius. Both in the northern and southern hemispheres.

But if you answer even more specifically which star brightest in the northern hemisphere, then I will answer Arcturus. But this star will already be inferior in brightness to the same Sirius.

Arcturus is located in the constellation Bootes. Finding it in the sky is not difficult - we visually make an arc through the three stars of the handle of the Ursa Major bucket.



The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius. This is due to its relative proximity to the solar system, only 8.6 light years. This star can be observed from almost anywhere on our planet. In ancient times, Sirius was also called the Dog Star. Sirius is the sixth brightest object in the earth's sky. Brighter than it are only the Sun, the Moon, and during the period of best visibility also the planets Venus, Mars and Jupiter. The approximate age of Sirius is about 230 million years.

Astronomy

• Translation

Do you know them all, as well as the reasons for their brightness?

I'm hungry for new knowledge. The point is to learn every day and become brighter and brighter. This is the essence of this world.
- Jay-Z

When you imagine the night sky, you most likely think of thousands of stars twinkling against the black blanket of night, something that can only be truly seen away from cities and other sources of light pollution.

But those of us who don't get to witness such a spectacle on a periodic basis are missing the fact that stars seen from urban areas with high light pollution look different than when viewed in dark conditions. Their color and relative brightness immediately set them apart from their neighboring stars, and each has its own story.

People in the northern hemisphere can probably immediately recognize Ursa Major or the letter W in Cassiopeia, while in the southern hemisphere the most famous constellation has to be the Southern Cross. But these stars are not among the ten brightest!

Milky Way next to the Southern Cross

Each star has its own life cycle, to which it is tied from the moment of birth. When any star forms, the dominant element will be hydrogen - the most abundant element in the Universe - and its fate is determined only by its mass. Stars with 8% the mass of the Sun can ignite nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, fusing helium from hydrogen, and their energy gradually moves from the inside out and pours out into the Universe. Low-mass stars are red (due to low temperatures), dim, and burn their fuel slowly—the longest-lived ones are destined to burn for trillions of years.

But the more mass a star gains, the hotter its core, and the larger the region in which nuclear fusion occurs. By the time it reaches solar mass, the star falls into class G, and its lifetime does not exceed ten billion years. Double the solar mass and you get a class A star that is bright blue and lives for less than two billion years. And the most massive stars, classes O and B, live only a few million years, after which their core runs out of hydrogen fuel. Not surprisingly, the most massive and hot stars are also the brightest. A typical class A star can be 20 times brighter than the Sun, and the most massive ones can be tens of thousands of times brighter!

But no matter how a star begins life, the hydrogen fuel in its core runs out.

And from that moment on, the star begins to burn heavier elements, expanding into a giant star, cooler, but also brighter than the original one. The giant phase is shorter than the hydrogen burning phase, but its incredible brightness makes it visible from much greater distances than the original star was visible from.

Taking all this into account, let's move on to the ten brightest stars in our sky, in increasing order of brightness.

10. Achernar. A bright blue star with seven times the mass of the Sun and 3,000 times the brightness. This is one of the fastest rotating stars known to us! It rotates so fast that its equatorial radius is 56% greater than its polar radius, and the temperature at the pole - because it is much closer to the core - is 10,000 K higher. But it is quite far from us, 139 light years away.

9. Betelgeuse. A red giant star in the Orion constellation, Betelgeuse was a bright and hot O-class star until it ran out of hydrogen and switched to helium. Despite its low temperature of 3,500 K, it is more than 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, which is why it is among the ten brightest, despite being 600 light years away. Over the next million years, Betelgeuse will go supernova and temporarily become the brightest star in the sky, possibly visible during the day.

8. Procyon. The star is very different from those we have considered. Procyon is a modest F-class star, just 40% larger than the Sun, and on the verge of running out of hydrogen in its core - meaning it is a subgiant in the process of evolution. It is about 7 times brighter than the Sun, but is only 11.5 light years away, so it may be brighter than all but seven stars in our sky.

7. Rigel. In Orion, Betelgeuse is not the brightest of the stars - this distinction is awarded to Rigel, a star even more distant from us. It is 860 light years away, and with a temperature of just 12,000 degrees, Rigel is not a main sequence star - it is a rare blue supergiant! It is 120,000 times brighter than the Sun, and shines so brightly not because of its distance from us, but because of its own brightness.

6. Chapel. This is a strange star because it is actually two red giants with temperatures comparable to the Sun, but each is about 78 times brighter than the Sun. At a distance of 42 light years, it is the combination of its own brightness, relatively short distance and the fact that there are two of them that allows Capella to be on our list.

5. Vega. The brightest star from the Summer-Autumn Triangle, the home of the aliens from the film “Contact”. Astronomers used it as a standard "zero magnitude" star. It is located only 25 light years from us, belongs to the stars of the main sequence, and is one of the brightest class A stars known to us, and is also quite young, only 400-500 million years old. Moreover, it is 40 times brighter than the Sun, and the fifth brightest star in the sky. And of all the stars in the northern hemisphere, Vega is second only to one star...

4. Arcturus. The orange giant, on the evolutionary scale, is somewhere between Procyon and Capella. It is the brightest star in the northern hemisphere and can be easily found by the "handle" of the Big Dipper. It is 170 times brighter than the Sun, and following its evolutionary path, it can become even brighter! It is only 37 light years away, and only three stars are brighter than it, all located in the southern hemisphere.

3. Alpha Centauri. This is a triple system in which the main member is very similar to the Sun, and is itself fainter than any star in the ten. But the Alpha Centauri system consists of the stars closest to us, so its location affects its apparent brightness - after all, it is only 4.4 light years away. Not at all like number 2 on the list.

2. Canopus. A white supergiant, Canopus is 15,000 times brighter than the Sun, and is the second brightest star in the night sky, despite being 310 light-years away. It is ten times more massive than the Sun and 71 times larger - it is not surprising that it shines so brightly, but it could not reach the first place. After all, the brightest star in the sky is...

1. Sirius. It is twice as bright as Canopus, and northern hemisphere observers can often see it rising behind the constellation Orion in winter. It flickers frequently because its bright light can penetrate the lower atmosphere better than that of other stars. It's only 8.6 light-years away, but it's a class A star, twice as massive and 25 times brighter than the Sun.

It may surprise you that the top stars on the list are not the brightest or the closest stars, but rather combinations of bright enough and close enough to shine the brightest. Stars located twice as far away have four times less brightness, so Sirius shines brighter than Canopus, which shines brighter than Alpha Centauri, etc. Interestingly, class M dwarf stars, to which three out of every four stars in the Universe belong, are not on this list at all.

What we can take away from this lesson: sometimes the things that seem most striking and most obvious to us turn out to be the most unusual. Common things can be much harder to find, but that means we need to improve our observation methods!

Note:

1. (Alpha Canis Majoris; αCMa, Sirius). The brightest star in the constellation Canis Major and the brightest star in the sky. It is a visual binary star with an orbital period of 50 years, the main component (A) being an A star and the second component (B, Pup) an 8th magnitude white dwarf. Sirius B was first discovered optically in 1862, and its type was determined from its spectrum in 1925. Sirius is 8.7 light years away from us and ranks seventh in terms of proximity to the Solar System. The name is inherited from the ancient Greeks and means “scorching,” which emphasizes the brilliance of the star. In connection with the name of the constellation to which Sirius belongs, it is also called the “Dog Star”. The third star, a brown dwarf, closer to (A) than component (B), was discovered by French astronomers in 1995.
2. (Alpha Bootes, αBoo, Arcturus). The brightest star in the constellation Bootes, an orange giant K-star, is the fourth brightest star in the sky. Double, variable. The name is of Greek origin and means “bear keeper.” Arcturus was the first star to be seen during the day using a telescope by the French astronomer and astrologer Morin in 1635.
3. (Alpha Lyrae; α Lyr, Vega). The brightest star in the constellation Lyra and the fifth brightest star in the sky. This is an A-star. In 2005, the Spitzer Space Telescope captured infrared images of Vega and the dust surrounding the star. A planetary system is formed around a star.
4. (Alpha Aurigae; α Aur, Chapel). The brightest star in the constellation Auriga, a spectroscopic double star in which the main component is a giant G-star. Her name is of Latin origin and means “little goat.”
5. (Beta Orionis; β Ori, Rigel). The brightest star in the constellation Orion. It is designated by the Greek letter Beta, although it is slightly brighter than Betelgeuse, which is designated Alpha Orionis. Rigel is a supergiant B star with a 7th magnitude companion. The name, which is of Arabic origin, means "giant's foot."
6. (Alpha Canis Minor; αCMi, Procyon). The brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor. Procyon ranks fifth in brightness among all stars. In 1896, J. M. Scheberl discovered that Procyon is a binary system. The main companion is a normal F star, and the faint companion is an 11th magnitude white dwarf. The system's circulation period is 41 years. The name Procyon is of Greek origin and means "before the dog" (a reminder that the star rises before the "Dog Star", i.e. Sirius).
7. (Alpha Eagle; α Aql, Altair). The brightest star in the constellation Aquila. The Arabic word "altair" means "flying eagle". Altair - A-star. It is one of the closest among the brightest stars (located at a distance of 17 light years).
8. (Alpha Orionis; α Ori, Betelgeuse). A red supergiant M star, one of the largest known stars. Using point interferometry and other interference methods, it was possible to measure its diameter, which turned out to be approximately 1000 times the diameter of the Sun. The presence of large bright “starspots” was also discovered. Observations in the ultraviolet using the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that Betelgeuse is surrounded by a vast chromosphere with a mass of approximately twenty solar masses. Variable. The brightness varies irregularly between magnitudes 0.4 and 0.9 with a period of about five years. It is noteworthy that during the observation period from 1993 to 2009, the diameter of the star decreased by 15%, from 5.5 astronomical units to approximately 4.7, and astronomers cannot yet explain why this is due. However, the brightness of the star did not change any noticeably during this time.
9. (Alpha Taurus; α Tau, Aldebaran). The brightest star in the constellation Taurus. The Arabic name means “next” (i.e. following the Pleiades). Aldebaran is a giant K star. Variable. Although in the sky the star appears to be part of the Hyades cluster, it is not actually a member of it, being twice as close to Earth. In 1997, it was reported about the possible existence of a satellite - a large planet (or a small brown dwarf), with a mass equal to 11 Jupiter masses at a distance of 1.35 AU. The unmanned spacecraft Pioneer 10 is heading towards Aldebaran. If nothing happens to it along the way, it will reach the region of the star in about 2 million years.
10. (Alpha Scorpio; α Sco, Antares). The brightest star in the constellation Scorpio. Red supergiant, M-star, variable, binary The name is of Greek origin and means “competitor of Mars,” which recalls the remarkable color of this star. Antares is a semi-regular variable star whose brightness varies between magnitudes 0.9 and 1.1 with a five-year period. It has a blue companion star of 6th magnitude, only 3 arc seconds distant. Antares B was discovered during one of these occultations on April 13, 1819. The satellite's orbital period is 878 years.
11. (Alpha Virgo; αVir, Spica). The brightest star in the constellation Virgo. It is an eclipsing binary, variable, whose brightness varies by about 0.1 magnitude with a period of 4.014 days. The main component is a blue-white B star with a mass of about eleven solar masses. The name means "cob of corn".
12. (Beta Gemini; β Gem, Pollux). The brightest star in the constellation Gemini, although its designation is Beta rather than Alpha. It seems unlikely that Pollux has become brighter since the time of Bayer (1572-1625). Pollux is an orange giant K star. In classical mythology, the twins Castor and Pollux were the sons of Leda. In 2006, an exoplanet was discovered near the star.
13. (Alpha Southern Pisces; α PsA,
14. (Epsilon Canis Majoris; εCMa, Adara). The second brightest star (after Sirius) in the constellation Canis Major, a giant B star. Has a companion star of 7.5 m. The Arabic name of the star means “virgin”. Approximately 4.7 million years ago, the distance from ε Canis Majoris to Earth was 34 light years, and the star was the brightest in the sky, its brilliance was equal to −4.0 m
15. (Alpha Gemini; α Gem, Castor). The second brightest in the constellation Gemini after Pollux. Its naked-eye magnitude is estimated to be 1.6, but this is the combined brightness of a multiple system consisting of at least six components. There are two A stars with magnitudes 2.0 and 2.9, forming a close visual pair, each of which is a spectroscopic binary, and a more distant red star of magnitude 9, which is an eclipsing binary.
16. (Gamma Orionis; γ Ori, Bellatrix). Giant, B-star, variable, double. The name is of Latin origin and means “warrior woman.” One of the 57 navigational stars of antiquity
17. (Beta Taurus; β Tau, Nat). The second brightest in the constellation Taurus, lying at the tip of one of the bull's horns. The name comes from the Arabic expression "goring with horns." This star on ancient maps depicted the right leg of a human figure in the constellation Auriga and had another designation, Gamma Auriga. Elnat is a B-star.
18. (Epsilon Orionis; ε Ori, Alnilam). One of the three bright stars that form Orion's belt. The Arabic name translates as "string of pearls". Alnilam - supergiant, B-star, variable
19. (Zeta Orionis; ζ Ori, Alnitak). One of the three bright stars that form Orion's belt. The Arabic name translates as "belt". Alnitak is a supergiant, O-star, triple star.
20. (Epsilon Ursa Major; ε UMa, Aliot). The brightest star in the constellation Ursa Major. The Greek letters in this case are assigned to the stars in order of their position, not brightness. Alioth is an A star, possibly having a planet 15 times more massive than Jupiter.
21. (Alpha Ursa Major; αUMa, Dubhe). One of two stars (the other is Merak) of the Big Dipper in Ursa Major, called the Indexes. Giant, K-star, variable. The 5th magnitude companion orbits it every 44 years. Dubhe, literally "bear", is a shortened version of the Arabic name meaning "back of the larger bear".
22. (Alpha Persei;α Per, Mirfak). The brightest star in the constellation Perseus. Yellow supergiant, F-star, variable. The name, of Arabic origin, means "elbow".
23. (This Ursa Major; ηUMa, Benetnash). The star is located at the end of the “tail”. B-star, variable. The Arabic name means “leader of mourners” (for the Arabs, the constellation was seen as a hearse, not a bear).
24. (Beta Canis Majoris; βCMa, Mirzam). The second brightest in the constellation Canis Major. A giant B star, a variable, is the prototype of a class of weakly variable stars such as Beta Canis Majoris. Its brightness changes every six hours by a few hundredths of a magnitude. Such a low level of variability is not detectable with the naked eye.
25. (Alpha Hydra; αHya, Alphard). The brightest star in the constellation Hydra. The name is of Arabic origin and means “solitary snake.” Alphard - K-star, variable, triple.
26. (Alpha Ursa Minor; αUMi, Polar). The brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, located near the north celestial pole (at a distance of less than one degree). Polaris is the closest pulsating variable star of the Delta Cepheus type to Earth with a period of 3.97 days. But Polar is a very non-standard Cepheid: its pulsations fade over a period of about tens of years: in 1900 the change in brightness was ±8%, and in 2005 - approximately 2%. In addition, during this time the star became on average 15% brighter.

THE BRIGHTEST STARS VISIBLE FROM EARTH

Many people, looking at the sky after sunset, wonder what kind of bright white star appears near the Moon, so I am inclined to think that it is VENUS. It is also visible in the morning at 6 o’clock, when I am rushing to work. But I still collected material for comparison.

Sirius, as we see on Wikpedia, visible BEFORE sunset Knowing the exact coordinates of Sirius in the sky, it can be seen during the day with the naked eye. For best viewing, the sky should be very clear and the Sun should be low above horizon.

Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of −2.8, making it the third brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus. However, Jupiter is also called the Great Red Spot. However, at certain moments

Marsmay briefly exceed the brightness of Jupiter. Mars is called the "Red Planet" because of the reddish hue of its surface given by iron oxide. This means that she is not white at all, which is what needed to be proven.

And here Venus, even in the photos of astronomers, it is THERE, UNDER THE MOON, where I and other amateurs see it...

Syria

- (Alpha Canis Major) is located at a distance of 8.64 light years from us and is the brightest star visible in the night sky. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year, it is about 9.5 trillion km. The distance from Earth to Syria is approximately 80 trillion km. Macca Syria is 2.14 times the mass of the Sun, and its brightness is 24 times. It is also almost 2 times hotter: the temperature on its surface is about 100,000 C. Sirius is the star of the Southhemispheres of the sky .In mid latitudesRussia Sirius is observed in the southern part of the sky in autumn (early morning), winter (from sunrise to sunset) and spring (visible some time after sunset).Sirius is the sixth brightest object in the earth's sky. Only brighter than himSun , Moon , as well as planetsVenus , Jupiter AndMars during the period of best visibility (see also:List of the brightest stars ). For some time, Sirius was considered one of the stars of the so-calledmoving group of Ursa Major . This group includes 220 stars, which are united by the same age and similar movement in space. Initially the group wasopen star cluster , however, at present the cluster as such does not exist - it has disintegrated and become gravitationally unbound. So, most of the stars of the asterism belong to this clusterBig Dipper in Ursa Major. However, scientists subsequently came to the conclusion that this is not so - Sirius is much younger than this cluster and cannot be its representative.

Venus

- second internalplanet solar system with an orbital period of 224.7 Earth days. The planet got its name in honorVenus , goddesses love fromroman pantheon deities.

Venus -brightest object in the night sky except Moon , and reachesapparent magnitude at -4.6. Since Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth , it never seems too far from the Sun: the maximum angle between it and the Sun is 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or some time after sunset, which gave rise to the name Evening Star or

The best time to observe Venus is shortly before sunrise (some time after sunrise in morning visibility).

Stargazing is truly an exciting activity. Even without a telescope, you can find the brightest stars located at different distances from our planet.

The brightest stars, observed from the Earth, we have collected in today's top ten. They are all ranked by apparent magnitude, which is a measure of the brightness of a celestial body. Naturally, we do not include the Sun in this top ten, considering the stars that we observe exclusively at night.

This star from the constellation Orion is located at a distance of 495 to 650 light years. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant and is much larger than the Sun. If we placed a star in the place of our luminary, it would fill the orbit of Mars. Betelgeuse is visible in the Northern Hemisphere.

9. Achernar

A bright blue star in the constellation Eridanus is visible from the southern hemisphere of the planet. Achernar's mass is 6-8 times that of the sun. The star is 144 light years away from Earth. Among all, this one has the least spherical shape, because. rotates very quickly around its own axis.

8. Procyon

The star in the constellation Canis Minor is 11.4 light years away from Earth. The name of the star translated from Greek means “before the dog.” Procyon can be observed in the Northern Hemisphere.

7. Rigel

The star in the constellation Orion is located near the equator. Rigel is located 860 light years from Earth. This is one of the most powerful stars in our Galaxy, its mass is 17 times that of the Sun, and its brightness is 130,000 times.

6. Chapel

The star in the constellation Auriga is almost 41 light years away from Earth. The chapel is visible from the Northern Hemisphere. The peculiarity of this yellow giant is that it is a spectroscopic double star. Each component of the binary star has a mass 2.5 times greater than the Sun.

5. Vega

The star in the constellation Lyra is clearly visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Vega is 25 light years away from Earth. This star has been well studied by astronomers, because located relatively close to the solar system.

4. Arcturus

This orange giant is the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere. Arcturus is 34 light years from Earth. From Russia, the star is visible all year round. Arcturus is 110 times brighter than the Sun.

3. Toliman (Alpha Centauri)

The closest star to the Sun is 4.3 light years away from Earth. A star consists of three components - a binary system? Centauri A and? Centauri B, as well as a red dwarf invisible without a telescope. It is believed that Toliman will be the first target for interstellar flights.

2. Canopus

The star in the constellation Carina is a yellowish-white supergiant. Canopus is 310 light years away from Earth. The mass of the star is 8-9 times greater than that of the Sun, and its diameter is 65 times greater than the Sun.

1. Sirius

The brightest star is in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius's brightness is due to its relative proximity to Earth (8.6 light years). Sirius is visible from almost all parts of the globe with the exception of the northernmost regions.