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Astronomy facts

How many astronomy facts can you reckon of?  Consider that there are somewhere around 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe, that’s a one followed by 22 zeros.  Then consider that many of those stars have planets surrounding them.  Now reckon about all the moons that orbit the planets, and the comets, and the asteroids, and everything else in the universe.  The number of facts and amount of data is staggering.  This article, which presents astronomy facts, certainly won’t contain every fact.  But these are fascinating facts.

How about the brightest stars as seen from Earth?  Those are excellent astronomy facts.  The son, about 250,000 times closer than the next star, isn’t counted here.  We get so much light from the sun that when it shines none of the other stars can be seen.  Keep in mind that in the scale for the magnitudes given, lower numbers are brighter.  The sun would be about -26.73, while the full moon is -12.6.  With that in mind, here are the top 5.

#5 goes to Vega, Arabic for vulture.  This star has a magnitude of .03, and is 25 light-years from Earth.  Overall, for this discussion of astronomy facts, the truly brightest star may not appear to be so from her.  The Sun is not the largest or brightest star in the universe or even the galaxy, yet it appears so bright because it is so near compared to other stars.

#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 astronomy facts is Arcturus.  The name means guardian of the bear in Greek.  This star is 37 light years from us.

#2 is Canopus.  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 it’s 313 light years from Earth so it’s just second on this list as seen from Earth.   From earth its magnitude is -.62.

#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 Huge Dog.).  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.

Astronomy facts go way beyond this.  But it’s something to consider next time you look into the sky.

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