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Many star names are, in origin, descriptive of the part in the constellation they are found in; thus Phecda, a corruption of Arabic فخذ الدب ( fakhdh ad-dubb, 'thigh of the bear'). Only a handful of the brightest stars have individual proper names not depending on their asterism; so Sirius ('the scorcher'), Antares ('rival of Ares ', i.e ...
All stars but one can be associated with an IAU (International Astronomical Union) constellation. IAU constellations are areas of the sky. Although there are only 88 IAU constellations, the sky is actually divided into 89 irregularly shaped boxes as the constellation Serpens is split into two separate sections, Serpens Caput (the snake's head) to the west and Serpens Cauda (the snake's tail ...
The Sun is the brightest star as viewed from Earth, at −26.78 mag. The second brightest is Sirius at −1.46 mag. For comparison, the brightest non-stellar objects in the Solar System have maximum brightnesses of: the Moon −12.7 mag [1] Venus −4.92 mag. Jupiter −2.94 mag. Mars −2.94 mag.
Stars in the night sky. The first star catalogue in Greek astronomy was created by Aristillus in approximately 300 BC, with the help of Timocharis. [10] The star catalog of Hipparchus (2nd century BC) included 1,020 stars, and was used to assemble Ptolemy's star catalogue. [11] Hipparchus is known for the discovery of the first recorded nova ...
The following is a list of particularly notable actual or hypothetical stars that have their own articles in Wikipedia, but are not included in the lists above. BPM 37093 — a diamond star. Cygnus X-1 — X-ray source. EBLM J0555-57Ab — is one of the smallest stars ever discovered.
Fifth brightest star in the night sky. [79] Altair (α Aquilae) 2.01 × 1.57 [112] Twelfth brightest star in the night sky. Sirius A (α Canis Majoris) 1.711 [113] The brightest star in the night sky. Rigil Kentaurus (α Centauri) 1.2175 [114] Third brightest star in the night sky. Sun: 1: The largest object in the Solar System.
It contains Ursa Major and the Hyades star cluster, among others. The Local Bubble also contains the neighboring G-Cloud, which contains the stars Alpha Centauri and Altair. In the galactic context, the Local Bubble is a small part of the Orion Arm, which contains most stars that we can see without a telescope.
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word Σείριος (Latin script: Seirios ), meaning lit. 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated α CMa or Alpha CMa. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, Sirius is almost twice ...