Beautiful names of celestial bodies. constellations (2024)

Many cosmonyms are of great antiquity. So, Yu. A. Karpenko, analyzing the names of Ursa Major in different languages ​​and regions of the world, comes to the conclusion that “the name of this constellation with the meaning “bear” refers to the deepest antiquity, comparable to the time of the appearance of the language itself.” The assignment to such a distant period is based on the fact that now this constellation is nothing like a “bear (bear)” - it looks like a ladle, a wagon, some other objects, and in the past its configuration, as astronomers have established, resembled a bear. “The name of the constellation “Bear” appeared, it can be assumed, in several places in the northern hemisphere independently of each other. The configuration of the seven bright stars of the constellation in remote antiquity resembled the figure of a bear, which is why the name arose. This similarity, the author writes, disappeared about 80 thousand years ago due to the relative movement of the stars. The name, therefore, could have arisen only before that time. The naming of the constellation "Wagon" is already based on its modern configuration. The distribution of this name shows that it originally originated somewhere in one place. Probably, in the Indo-European languages ​​it is a genetic heritage, and in other languages ​​it is borrowed from the Indo-Europeans.

In the Russian literary language (and from it in dialects) the names Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (as well as the words Arctic, Antarctica, Antarctica, etc.) date back to the Greek arktos - “bear”. The Latin name for Ursa Major is Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor is Ursa Minor. The overwhelming majority of the names of constellations, stars, planets and other space objects accepted in Russian astronomical terminology are Latin words or their literal translations (tracing paper).

Here is a list of constellations (skipping the constellations of the southern hemisphere, invisible in our geographical latitudes): Andromeda (abbreviated designation And) - the Russian name for Andromeda, Aquarius (Aqr) - Aquarius, Aquila - Eagle, Aries - Aries, Auriga - Charioteer, Bootes - Bootes, further we give only Russian correspondences: Giraffe, Cancer, Hounds Dogs, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Capricorn, Keel, Cassiopeia, Centaurus, Cepheus, Whale, Dove, Veronica's Hair, Southern Crown, Northern Crown, Raven, Bowl, Swan, Dolphin, Dragon, Lesser Horse, Eridanus, Furnace, Gemini, Hercules, Hydra, Lizard, Lion, Lesser Lion, Hare, Libra, Wolf, Lynx, Lyra, Unicorn, Ophiuchus, Orion, Pegasus, Perseus, Pisces, Southern Fish, Feed, Arrow , Sagittarius, Scorpio, Shield, Snake, Sextan, Taurus, Triangle, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Virgo, Chanterelles. There are 88 constellations in total.

The path of the Sun in the celestial sphere during the year is called the "ecliptic". It runs through 12 constellations, which are called "zodiacal" (zodiac belt), since most of them got their names from animals (Greek zoon - "animal"). Their names in the order of the constellations are: Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius. In the names we see a reflection of the history of mankind, in particular traces of its ancient hunting and agricultural periods. Aquarius and Pisces - the time of flooding of rivers and fishing, Taurus and Aries - the period of pastures, the constellations of Virgo and Libra symbolize the time of harvesting and weighing the harvest.

Stars also have foreign-language, mostly Latin, names. So, the brightest star in the constellation of the Severian Crown is Gemma ("pearl"), in the constellation Virgo - Spica ("ear"), in the constellation Lyra - Vega ("bird"), In scientific works on astronomy (books, atlases) stars inside the constellations receive letter designations (individualization). This is a more reliable way of designating, since not all stars have "verbal" names. In addition, the sequence of the alphabet of letters is used to indicate the degree of brightness of a star: usually the brightest star is denoted by the Greek letter alpha - the first in the alphabet, the second brightest - beta, the next - gamma, followed by delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, etc. For example, The polar star is the alpha of Ursa Minor, the star Sirius is the alpha of Canis Major, Alpharet is the alpha of Andromeda, Alamak is the gamma of Andromeda, Rigel is the beta of Orion, Pollucus is the beta of Gemini, Alioth is the epsilon of Ursa Major, Al Suhail is the lambda of Sails, etc. And all these star names came from common nouns and phrases, for example: Deneb (alpha Cygnus) in Russian means "tail", Denebola (in the constellation Leo) - "tail"; Aldebaran (alpha Taurus) - "the bull's right eye", Betelgeuse (alpha Orion) - "the right shoulder of a giant."

In scientific use and Russian literary language, all the names of the planets are foreign, except for the Earth: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, as well as Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. The first five were already known in ancient times (they are visible to the naked eye). The Greeks in the time of Pythagoras (VI century BC) called them by “light”, “fire”, thinking that they “burn” and “shine” with their fire (only later it was established that these “lights” - dark and shining with solar reflection). Mercury among the Greeks is “sparkling, sparkling”, Venus is “carrying light, bringing morning”, Mars is “fiery, fiery”, Jupiter is “shining, radiant”, Saturn is “shining”. When the Greeks learned that the Babylonians call these planets (and they were already familiar with them 2 thousand years before our era!) The names of the gods, they also decided to “christen” them, giving the names of their Greek gods. Aristotle (384-322 BC) already named them as follows: Hermes (Mercury), Aphrodite (Venus), Ares (Mars), Zeus (Jupiter), Kronos, Kronos (Saturn). The Greek names were not accidental: “Mercury is the fastest of the planets, and Hermes, the messenger of the gods, the god of merchants and travelers, was very fast, he even had wings on his feet. The red color of blood, characteristic of Mars, was easily linked with Ares, the god of war. The supreme god Zeus was allocated the brightest (when Venus is not visible) planet Jupiter. The planet Saturn was placed immediately behind Jupiter. Therefore, it was quite logical to name her after Kronos, the father of Zeus. The evening and morning star Venus received the name of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, according to the same logic by which the Moon is called the sun of lovers. The Romans, whose divine pantheon largely corresponded to the Greek, “translated” the Greek names of the planets into the names of their gods, so the commonly accepted names Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn appeared. The Greek names of the planets first came to Ancient Russia. So, in the “Izbornik of Svyatoslav” of 1037 we read: “the seven plans are the names of these: sun, louna, zeus, ermis, aris, aphrodite, kronos” (here the Sun and Moon are erroneously included in the number of planets). The Latin names of the planets have become known to us since the end of the 16th century, and finally entrenched in the 18th century. during the time of Peter I.

For a long time, the Earth was not considered a planet (a “reference” came from it - a geocentric system), its planetary status was proved in the 16th century. N. Copernicus, who "transferred" the reference point from the Earth to the Sun (heliocentric system). For Russians and related Slavic peoples, it has long been called the Earth. This name (Earth) was left behind our planet (sixth in order of discovery).

The seventh planet was discovered in 1781 and was named in Greek Uranus (after the father of the Greek god Kron), the eighth - in 1846, she was given the name of the brother of Zeus (Jupiter) - Neptune, the Roman god of the seas. The last, ninth planet was discovered in 1930 by its mathematical "discovery" made by the American astronomer Percival Lovell (1855-1916). Paying tribute to the tradition (naming the planets according to mythological characters), as well as its discoverer, she was named Pluto (after the Greek god of the underworld, as well as L (ersival) L (ovella), taking the initial letters of his name and surname). Pluto fit well into the mythological context, he was the brother of Poseidon (Neptune) and Zeus (Jupiter).

Bondaletov V. L. Russian onomastics - M., 1983

A constellation is a section of the celestial sphere with all celestial objects projected onto it from the point of view of an earthly observer.
The word "constellation" (from lat. constellatio) means "collection (or group) of stars". In ancient times, expressive groups of stars were called "constellations", which helped to memorize the pattern of the starry sky and use it to navigate in space and time. Each nation had its own traditions of dividing the stars into constellations. The constellations used by modern astronomers are mostly named and include bright stars traditional for European culture.

For many centuries, the constellations did not have clearly defined boundaries; usually on maps and star globes, the constellations were separated by curved intricate lines that did not have a standard position. Therefore, from the moment of the formation of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), one of its first tasks was the delimitation of the starry sky. At the 1st General Assembly of the IAU, held in Rome in 1922, astronomers decided that it was time to finally divide the entire celestial sphere into parts with precisely defined boundaries, and this, by the way, would put an end to all attempts to reshape the starry sky. In the names of the constellations, it was decided to adhere to the Latin names of the constellations. At the general assemblies of the IAU in 1925 and 1928, lists of constellations were adopted and the boundaries between most of them were approved. In 1930, on behalf of the IAU, the Belgian astronomer Eugene Delporte published maps and detailed description new boundaries of all 88 constellations. But even after that, some clarifications were still made, and only in 1935, by decision of the IAU, this work was completed.
There are 88 officially recognized constellations by the International Astronomical Union. They are all listed below in alphabetical order. Latin names and official abbreviations are also indicated.

The apparent area of ​​a constellation is determined by the solid angle it occupies in the sky; it is usually given in square degrees. For comparison: the disks of the Moon or the Sun occupy an area of ​​\u200b\u200babout 0.2 square meters in the sky. degrees, and the area of ​​the entire celestial sphere is about 41253 sq. deg.
Ancient constellations. The first ideas of people about the starry sky came to us from the pre-literate period of history: they were preserved in material cultural monuments. Archaeologists and astronomers have found that the most ancient asterisms - characteristic groups of bright stars - were identified in the sky in the Stone Age, more than 15 thousand years ago. Some researchers believe that the first celestial images appeared simultaneously with the birth of the first drawings embodied in rock art, when the development of the left (logical) hemisphere of the human brain made it possible to identify an object with its flat image.
CONSTELLATIONS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF RUSSIAN NAMES

Canceled constellations

According to the already established tradition, the largest and brightest space objects have their own name. As a rule, the names of the stars were given in antiquity. Therefore, they mostly came from Arabic or Latin. That is why sometimes it happens that beautiful names in translation do not sound very presentable.

Legends and myths

As a rule, the names of large objects visible to the naked eye in the night sky were given by the Greeks and Arabs because of various legends. For example, there are such names as Cassiopeia (queen from myth), Orion (hunter) and many others. It is worth noting that a number of names of space objects given at that time often seem to modern man simply meaningless. For example, in the constellation of the Hare there is an object called by the Arabs Nihal, which means "Thirst-quenching camel." To an ordinary person this seems somewhat strange, although scientists know that the Arabs gave this name because of the relationship of this constellation with the asterism "Camel Caravan".

Of course, various historically recorded events, familiar to us thanks to the surviving documents from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, also gave names to space objects. For example, the ancient Romans called Sirius Vacation, which means "little dog." Sirius rises in the middle of summer, when the heat sets in, and, accordingly, the summer holidays begin. But for the Romans, such weather often meant a loss of crops, hence the name Vacation came from, as dog days came, that is, days threatening subsequent famine.

How names were given before modern times

As you know, the constellations were often used at that time for navigation. Therefore, scientists began to give the brightest stars visible to the naked eye their own names. As a rule, not only the name itself was used, but also one of the letters of the Greek alphabet. The letters were used according to a single rule:

• alpha denoted the brightest star in the constellation;
• beta was used to name the second brightest and largest point in the same constellation;
• gamma was accordingly used to refer to the third brightest star in the same constellation.

Such rules made navigation through the starry sky easier and more reliable..

Designation of stars today

At present the stars no one calls anymore beautiful words who came to us, for example, from mythology. Scientists all over the world assign a digital code to such newly discovered space objects. Such a phenomenon is quite understandable - with the development of optics and due to the creation of new powerful telescopes, it became possible to see even small clusters of stars located in distant galaxies. Giving each of the discovered objects a new original name has become almost impossible, and even meaningless, because the list is updated almost constantly, and this situation is unlikely to change in the near future.

However, even this rule has an exception. In astronautics, stars are used for the same navigation. And in order to better remember each of the necessary points, astronauts, employees of NASA and RosKosmos often give them nicknames. It also happens that it is these invented names that are remembered and begin to be actively used. There is also another tradition of astronomy - often just discovered objects are named after the one who first discovered them, or in honor of outstanding scientists. So the stars of Ksheminsky and Moiseev appeared. Of course, the academic community does not officially recognize such names, but in popular science literature, and in everyday life, they are used very often.

Officially, only the IAU can give names to space objects. This organization actively refutes rumors that allegedly you can purchase a special certificate and name any star yourself. This organization also maintains and maintains lists of space objects. There are two types of such star documents.

1. Alphabetical index of names.
2. Index of names broken down according to constellations.

Beautiful names

The names of space objects that have come down to us are often striking in their beauty and originality. No wonder many of them are used by writers or directors as proper names when creating books or films. for instance , a number of such borrowed names can be seen in the already legendary work "Harry Potter".

The list of the most beautiful names of stars, as a rule, includes Antares, Vega, Capella, Castor, Pollux, Electra, Etamine, Mimosa. But, given how many space objects exist with proper names Of course, this list cannot be called complete. Probably, each person can only personally determine for himself whether he likes the name or not. Therefore, disputes about the beauty of the names of stars, constellations, galaxies and other astronomical objects are simply meaningless.

Want to know which stars are the brightest in the night sky? Then read our rating of the TOP 10 brightest celestial bodies that are very easy to see at night with the naked eye. But first, a little history.

Historical view of magnitude

Approximately 120 years before Christ, the Greek astronomer Hipparchus created the very first catalog of stars known today. Despite the fact that this work did not survive to this day, it is assumed that Hipparchus' list included about 850 stars (Subsequently, in the second century AD, Hipparchus' catalog was expanded to 1022 stars thanks to the efforts of another Greek astronomer, Ptolemy. Hipparchus contributed to his list of stars that could be distinguished in every constellation known at that time, he carefully described the location of each celestial body, and also sorted them on a scale of brightness - from 1 to 6, where 1 meant the maximum possible brightness (or "magnitude") .

This method of measuring brightness is still used today. It is worth noting that at the time of Hipparchus there were no telescopes yet, therefore, looking at the sky with the naked eye, the ancient astronomer could distinguish only stars of the 6th magnitude (the least luminous) by dimness. Today, with modern ground-based telescopes, we are able to distinguish very faint stars, magnitude which reaches 22m. Whereas the Hubble Space Telescope is able to distinguish objects of magnitude up to 31m.

Apparent stellar magnitude - what is it?

With the advent of more precise light-measuring instruments, astronomers have decided to use decimal fractions for stellar magnitudes—2.75m, for example—rather than just rough numbers of 2s or 3s.
Today we know stars whose magnitude is brighter than 1m. For example, Vega, which is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, has an apparent magnitude of 0. Any star that shines brighter than Vega will have a negative magnitude. For example, Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, has an apparent magnitude of -1.46m.

Usually when astronomers talk about magnitudes they mean "apparent magnitude". As a rule, in such cases, a small Latin letter m is added to the numerical value - for example, 3.24m. This is a measure of the brightness of a star that a person observes from Earth, without taking into account the presence of the atmosphere, which affects the view.

Absolute stellar magnitude - what is it?

However, the brightness of a star depends not only on the power of its glow, but also on the degree of its remoteness from the Earth. For example, if you light a candle at night, it will shine brightly and illuminate everything around you, but if you move 5-10 meters away from it, its glow will no longer be enough, its brightness will decrease. In other words, you noticed a difference in brightness, although the flame of the candle remained the same all the time.

Based on this fact, astronomers have found a new way to measure the brightness of a star, which has been called "absolute magnitude". This method determines how bright a star would be if it were exactly 10 parsecs (approximately 33 light years) from Earth. For example, the Sun has an apparent magnitude of -26.7M (because it is very, very close), while its absolute magnitude is only +4.8M.

Absolute magnitude is usually given with a capital M, such as 2.75M. This method measures the actual power of the star's glow, without correction for distance or other factors (such as clouds of gas, dust absorption or scattering of the star's light).

1. Sirius ("Dog Star") / Sirius

All the stars in the night sky shine, but none shine as brightly as Sirius. The name of the star comes from the Greek word "Seirius", which means "burning" or "scorching". With an absolute magnitude of -1.42M, Sirius is the brightest star in our sky after the Sun. This bright star is located in the constellation Canis Major, which is why it is often called the Dog Star. In ancient Greece, it was believed that with the appearance of Sirius in the first minutes of dawn, the hottest part of the summer began - the season of "dog days".

However, today Sirius is no longer a signal for the beginning of the hottest part of summer, but all because the Earth, over a cycle of 25,800 years long, slowly oscillates around its axis. What causes the position of the stars in the night sky to change.

Sirius is 23 times brighter than our Sun, but at the same time its diameter and mass exceeds our celestial body only twice. Note that the distance to the Dog Star is relatively small by space standards, 8.5 light years, and it is this fact that determines, to a greater extent, the brightness of this star - it is the 5th closest star to our Sun.

Hubble image: Sirius A (brighter and more massive star) and Sirius B (bottom left, dimmer and smaller companion)

In 1844, the German astronomer Friedrich Besse noticed the wobble in Sirius and suggested that the wobble might be caused by the presence of a companion star. After almost 20 years, in 1862, Bessel's assumptions were 100% confirmed: astronomer Alvan Clark, while testing his new 18.5-inch refractor (the largest in the world at that time), discovered that Sirius is not one star, but two.

This discovery gave rise to a new class of stars: "white dwarfs". Such stars have a very dense core, since all the hydrogen in them has already been used up. Astronomers have calculated that Sirius' companion - named Sirius B - has the mass of our Sun packed into the dimensions of our Earth.

Sixteen milliliters of Sirius B substance (B is a Latin letter) would weigh about 2 tons on Earth. Since the discovery of Sirius B, its more massive companion has been called Sirius A.

How to find Sirius: The most successful time for observing Sirius is winter (for observers of the northern hemisphere), since the Dog Star appears quite early in the evening sky. To find Sirius, use the constellation Orion as a guide, or rather its three stars from the belt. Draw a line from the leftmost star of Orion's belt, tilted 20 degrees towards the southeast. As an assistant, you can use your own fist, which at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of the sky, so you will need about two widths of your fist.

2. Canopus / Canopus

Canopus is the brightest star in the constellation Carina, and the second brightest star after Sirius in the Earth's night sky. The Carina constellation is relatively young (by astronomical standards), and one of the three constellations that were once part of the huge constellation Argo Navis, named after Jason's Odyssey and the Argonauts who fearlessly set off in search of the Golden Fleece. The other two constellations form the sail (the constellation Sail/Vela) and the stern (the constellation Puppis).

Nowadays, spacecraft use the light from Canopus as a guide in outer space - a vivid example of this is the Soviet interplanetary stations and Voyager 2.

Canopus is fraught with truly incredible power. He is not as close to us as Sirius, but very bright. In the ranking of the 10 brightest stars in our night sky, this star takes 2nd place, surpassing our sun in light by 14,800 times! At the same time, Canopus is located 316 light-years from the Sun, which is 37 times farther than the brightest star in our night sky, Sirius.

Canopus is a yellow-white F class supergiant star with temperatures ranging from 5500 to 7800 degrees Celsius. It has already exhausted all of its hydrogen reserves, and is now converting its helium core into carbon. This helped the star "grow": Canopus exceeds the size of the Sun by 65 times. If we were to replace the Sun with Canopus, this yellow-white giant would gobble up everything before Mercury's orbit, including the planet itself.

Ultimately, Canopus will become one of the largest white dwarfs in the galaxy, and it may even be large enough to completely recycle all of its carbon reserves, making it a very rare type of neon-oxygen white dwarf. Rare because white dwarfs with a carbon-oxygen core are the most common, but Canopus is so massive that it can begin to convert its carbon into neon and oxygen during its transformation into a smaller, cooler, denser object.

How to find Canopus: With an apparent magnitude of -0.72m, Canopus is fairly easy to spot in the starry sky, but in the northern hemisphere, this celestial body can only be seen south of 37 degrees north latitude. Focus on Sirius (read how to find it above), Canopis is located about 40 degrees north of the brightest star in our night sky.

3. Alpha Centauri / Alpha Centauri

The star Alpha Centauri (also known as Rigel Centauri) is actually made up of three stars bound together by the force of gravity. The two main (read more massive) stars are Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, while the system's smallest star, a red dwarf, is called Alpha Centauri C.

The Alpha Centauri system is interesting to us primarily for its proximity: being at a distance of 4.3 light years from our Sun, these are the closest stars known to us today.

Alpha Centauri A and B are quite similar to our Sun, while Centaurus A can even be called a twin star (both luminaries are yellow G-class stars). In terms of luminosity, Centauri A is 1.5 times the luminosity of the Sun, while its apparent magnitude is 0.01m. As for Centaurus B, it is half as bright as its brighter companion, Centaurus A, in luminosity, and its apparent magnitude is 1.3m. The luminosity of the red dwarf, Centaurus C, is negligible compared to the other two stars, and its apparent magnitude is 11m.

Of these three stars, the smallest is also the closest - 4.22 light years separate Alpha Centauri C from our Sun - which is why this red dwarf is also called Proxima Centauri (from the Latin word proximus - close).

On clear summer nights, the Alpha Centauri system shines in the sky with a magnitude of -0.27m. True, this unusual three-star system is best observed in the southern hemisphere of the Earth, starting from 28 degrees north latitude and further south.

Even with a small telescope, two of the brightest stars in the Alpha Centauri system can be seen.

How to find Alpha Centauri: Alpha Centauri is located at the very bottom of the constellation Centaurus. Also, in order to find this three-star system, you can first find the constellation of the Southern Cross in the starry sky, then mentally continue the horizontal line of the cross towards the west, and you will first stumble upon the star Hadar, and a little further Alpha Centauri will shine brightly.

4. Arcturus / Arcturus

The first three stars in our ranking are mostly visible in the southern hemisphere. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern hemisphere. It is noteworthy that, given the binary nature of the Alpha Centauri system, Arcturus can be considered the third brightest star in the Earth's night sky, since it surpasses the brightest star in the Alpha Centauri system, Centauri A (-0.05m versus -0.01m) in brightness.

Arcturus, also known as the "Guardian of the Bear", is an integral satellite of the constellation Ursa Major (Ursa Major), and is very clearly visible in the northern hemisphere of the Earth (in Russia it is visible almost everywhere). Arcturus got its name from the Greek word "arktos", which means "bear".

Arcturus belongs to the type of stars called "orange giants", its mass is twice the mass of our Sun, while in terms of luminosity, the "Guardian of the Bear" bypasses our daytime star by 215 times. Light from Arcturus needs to travel 37 Earth years to reach Earth, so when we observe this star from our planet, we see what it was like 37 years ago. The brightness of the glow in the night sky of the Earth "Guard Bear" is -0.04m.

It is noteworthy that Arcturus is in the last stages of his stellar life. Due to the constant struggle between gravity and the pressure of the star, the Bear Guard is today 25 times the diameter of our Sun.

Ultimately, the outer layer of Arcturus will disintegrate and turn into a planetary nebula, similar to the well-known Ring Nebula (M57) in the constellation Lyra. After that, Arcturus will turn into a white dwarf.

It is noteworthy that in the spring, using the above method, you can easily find the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, Spica / Spica. To do this, after you find Arcturus, you just need to continue the arc of the Big Dipper further.

How to find Arcturus: Arcturus is the alpha (i.e. the brightest star) of the spring constellation Bootes. To find the "Guardian of the Bear", it is enough to first find the Big Dipper (Big Dipper) and mentally continue the arc of its handle until you stumble upon a bright orange star. This will be Arcturus, a star that forms, in the composition of several other stars, the figure of a kite.

5. Vega / Vega

The name "Vega" comes from Arabic and means "soaring eagle" or "soaring predator" in Russian. Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, also home to the equally famous Ring Nebula (M57) and the star Epsilon Lyra.

Ring Nebula (M57)

The Ring Nebula is a luminous shell of gas, somewhat similar to a smoke ring. Presumably this nebula was formed after the explosion of an old star. Epsilon Lyrae, in turn, is a double star, and this can even be seen with the naked eye. However, looking at this double star, even through a small telescope, you can see that each individual star also consists of two stars! That is why Epsilon Lyrae is often referred to as a "double double" star.

Vega is a hydrogen-burning dwarf star, 54 times brighter than our Sun in brightness, while exceeding it in mass by only 1.5 times. Vega is located 25 light-years from the Sun, which is relatively small by cosmic standards, its apparent magnitude in the night sky is 0.03m.

In 1984, astronomers discovered a disk of cold gas surrounding Vega - the first of its kind - extending from the star to a distance of 70 astronomical units (1AU = the distance from the Sun to the Earth). By the standards of the Solar System, the margins of such a disk would end approximately at the borders of the Kuiper Belt. This is a very important discovery, because it is believed that a similar disk was present in our solar system at the stages of its formation, and served as the beginning of the formation of planets in it.

It is noteworthy that astronomers have found "holes" in the disk of gas surrounding Vega, which may well indicate that planets have already formed around this star. This discovery attracted the American astronomer and writer Carl Sagan to choose Vega as the source of intelligent extraterrestrial signals transmitted to Earth in his first science fiction novel, Contact. Note that in real life, such contacts have never been recorded.

Together with the bright stars Altair and Deneb, Vega forms the famous Summer Triangle, an asterism that symbolically signals the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere of the Earth. This area is ideal for viewing with any size telescope on warm, dark, cloudless summer nights.

Vega is the first star in the world to be photographed. This event took place on July 16, 1850, an astronomer at Harvard University acted as a photographer. Note that stars dimmer than the 2nd apparent magnitude were generally not available for photography, with the equipment available at that time.

How to find Vega: Vega is the second brightest star in the northern hemisphere, so finding it in the starry sky is not difficult. The easiest way to search for Vega is to search for the Summer Triangle asterism first. With the beginning of June in Russia, already with the onset of the first twilight, the “Summer Triangle” is clearly visible in the sky to the southeast. The upper right corner of the triangle forms just the same Vega, the upper left - Deneb, well, Altair shines below.

6. Capella / Capella

Capella is the brightest star in the constellation Auriga, the sixth brightest star in the Earth's night sky. If we talk about the northern hemisphere, here Capella takes an honorable third place among the brightest stars.

At the moment, it is known that Capella is an incredible system of 4 stars: 2 stars are yellow G-class giants similar to each other, the second pair are much dimmer stars of the “red dwarf” class. The brighter of the two yellow giant, named Aa, is 80 times brighter and almost three times as massive as our star. The dimmer yellow giant, known as Ab, is 50 times brighter than the Sun and 2.5 times heavier. If you combine the glow of these two yellow giants, then they will surpass our Sun in this indicator by 130 times.

Comparison of the Sun (Sol) and the stars of the Capella system

The Capella system is located at a distance of 42 light years from us, and its apparent magnitude is 0.08m.

If you are at 44 degrees north latitude (Pyatigorsk, Russia) or even further north, you can observe the Chapel throughout the night: in these latitudes, it never sets beyond the horizon.

Both yellow giants are at the last stage of their lives, and very soon (by cosmic standards) will turn into a pair of white dwarfs.

How to find the Chapel: If you mentally draw a straight line through the two upper stars that form the bucket of the constellation Ursa Major, you will simply inevitably stumble upon the bright star Capella, which is part of the non-standard pentagon of the constellation Auriga.

7. Rigel / Rigel

In the lower right corner of the constellation Orion, the inimitable star Rigel shines regally. According to ancient legends, it was in the place where Rigel shines that the hunter Orion was bitten during a short fight with the insidious Scorpio. Translated from Arabic, "crossbar" means "foot".

Rigel is a multi-star system in which the brightest star is Rigel A, a blue supergiant, 40,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Despite its distance from our celestial body of 775 light years, it shines in our night sky with an indicator of 0.12m.

Rigel is located in the most impressive, in our opinion, winter constellation, the invincible Orion. This is one of the most recognizable constellations (except perhaps the Big Dipper constellation), since Orion is very easy to identify by the shape of the stars, which resembles the outline of a person: three stars located close to each other symbolize the hunter's belt, while four stars located at the edges represent his arms and legs.

If you observe Rigel through a telescope, you can see his second companion star, the apparent magnitude of which is only 7m.

The mass of Rigel is 17 times the mass of the Sun, and it is likely that after some time it will turn into a supernova and our galaxy will be illuminated by an incredible light from its explosion. However, it may also happen that Rigel can turn into a rare oxygen-neon white dwarf.

Note that in the constellation of Orion there is another very interesting place: the Great Nebula of Orion (M42), it is located in the lower part of the constellation, under the so-called hunter's belt, and new stars still continue to be born here.

How to find Rigel: First you need to find the constellation Orion (in Russia it is observed throughout the territory). In the lower left corner of the constellation, the star Rigel will shine brightly.

8. Procyon / Procyon

The star Procyon is located in the small constellation Canis Minor. This constellation depicts the smaller of the two hunting dogs belonging to the hunter Orion (the larger, as you might guess, symbolizes the constellation Canis Major).

Translated from Greek, the word "procyon" means "ahead of the dog": in the northern hemisphere, Procyon is a harbinger of the appearance of Sirius, which is also called the "Dog Star".

Procyon is a yellow-white star, 7 times more luminous than the Sun, while in size it is only twice as big as our star. As in the case of Alpha Centauri, Procyon shines so brightly in our night sky due to its proximity to the Sun - 11.4 light-years separate our luminary and a distant star.

Procyon is at the end of its life cycle: now the star is actively converting the remaining hydrogen into helium. Now this star is twice the diameter of our Sun, making it one of the brightest celestial bodies in the Earth's night sky at a distance of 20 light years.

It is worth noting that Procyon, together with Betelgeuse and Sirius, forms the well-known and recognizable asterism, the Winter Triangle.

Procyon A and B and their comparison with the Earth and the Sun

A white dwarf star revolves around Procyon, which was visually discovered in 1896 by the German astronomer John Schieber. At the same time, conjectures about the existence of a companion in Procyon were put forward as early as 1840, when another German astronomer, Arthur von Auswers, noticed some inconsistencies in the movement of a distant star, which with a high degree of probability could only be explained by the presence of a large and dim body.

The dimmer companion, named Procyon B, is one-third the size of Earth and has a mass of 60% that of the sun. The brighter star in this system has since been called Procyon A.

How to find Procyon: To begin with, we find the well-known constellation Orion. In this constellation, in the upper left corner, there is the star Betelgeuse (also included in our rating), mentally drawing a straight line from it in a westerly direction, you will certainly stumble upon Procyon.

9. Achernar

Achernar, translated from Arabic means "end of the river", which is quite natural: this star is the most southern point of the constellation bearing the name of the river from ancient Greek mythology, Eridanus.

Achernar is the most hot star of our TOP 10 rating, its temperature varies from 13 to 19 thousand degrees Celsius. This star is also incredibly bright: in terms of luminosity, it is about 3150 times brighter than our Sun. With an apparent magnitude of 0.45m, light from Achernar takes 144 Earth years to reach our planet.

The constellation Eridani with its extreme point, the star Achernar

Achernar is quite close in apparent magnitude to the star Betelgeuse (number 10 in our rating). However, Achernar is generally ranked as the 9th brightest star in the rankings, as Betelgeuse is a variable star whose apparent magnitude can drop from 0.5m to as low as 1.2m, as it did in 1927 and 1941.

Achernar is a massive class B star, eight times the mass of our Sun. Now it is actively converting its hydrogen into helium, which will eventually turn it into a white dwarf.

It is noteworthy that for a planet of the class of our Earth, the most comfortable distance from Achernar (with the possibility of the existence of water in liquid form) would be a distance of 54-73 astronomical units, that is, in solar system it would be beyond the orbit of Pluto.

How to find Achernar: on the territory of Russia, alas, this star is invisible. In general, for a comfortable observation of Achernar, you need to be south of the 25th degree of North latitude. To find Achernar, mentally draw a straight line in a southerly direction through the stars Betelgeuse and Rigel. The first super-bright star you will see will be Achernar.

10. Betelgeuse / Betelgeuse

Do not think that the importance of Betelgeuse is as low as its position in our ranking. A distance of 430 light-years hides from us the true scale of the super-giant star. However, even at such a distance, Betelgeuse continues to sparkle in the earth's night sky with an indicator of 0.5m, while this star is 55 thousand times brighter than the Sun.

Betelgeuse in Arabic means "armpit hunter."

Betelgeuse marks the eastern shoulder of the mighty Orion from the constellation of the same name. Also, Betelgeuse is also called Alpha Orion, that is, in theory, it should be the brightest star in its constellation. However, in fact, the brightest star in the constellation Orion is the star Rigel. This oversight, most likely, was due to the fact that Betelgeuse is a variable star (a star that changes its brightness from time to time). Therefore, it is likely that at the time when Johannes Bayer estimated the brightness of these two stars, Betelgeuse shone brighter than Rigel.

If Betelgeuse replaced the sun in the solar system

The star Betelgeuse is a red supergiant of class M1, its diameter is 650 times the diameter of our Sun, while in mass it is only 15 times heavier than our celestial body. If we imagine that Betelgeuse becomes our Sun, then everything that is before the orbit of Mars will be absorbed by this giant star!

When you start observing Betelgeuse, you will see a star at the sunset of your long life. Its huge mass suggests that it is most likely that it converts all of its elements into iron. If this is so, then in the near future (by cosmic standards) Betelgeuse will explode and turn into a supernova, while the explosion will be so bright that it can be compared in terms of its glow power with the glow of a crescent moon visible from Earth. The birth of a supernova will leave behind a dense neutron star. According to another theory, Betelgeuse may turn into a rare type of neon-oxygen dwarf star.

How to find Betelgeuse: First you need to find the constellation Orion (in Russia it is observed throughout the territory). In the upper right corner of the constellation, the star Betelgeuse will shine brightly.