why is sirius the brightest star in the night sky
Sirius Sirius appears bright because of its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs (8.6 ly), as determined by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite,[2][25][26] the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbours. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slightly increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years. After that time its distance will begin to increase and it will become fainter, but it will continue to be the brightest star in the Earth's night sky for the next 210,000 years.[27]
Babylon Babylon (
Star-crossed The phrase was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:
Night sky Planets, named for the Greek word for "wanderer," process through the star field a little each day, executing loops with time scales dependent on the length of the planets year or orbital period around solar system. Planets, to the naked eye, appear as points of light in the sky with variable brightness. Planets shine due to sunlight reflecting or scattering from the planets surface or atmosphere. Thus the relative sun planet earth positions determine the planets brightness. With telescope or good binoculars the planets appear as discs demonstrating finite size and also show phases like Earth's moon and also may possess their own orbiting moons which occasionally cast shadow onto the host planet surface . Venus is the most prominent planet, often called the "morning star" or "evening star" because it is brighter than the stars and often the only "star" visible near sunrise or sunset depending on its location in its orbit. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are also visible to the naked eye.
Religio The Latin term
Hubble sequence Our own Milky Way is generally classed as SBb or SBc[14], making it a barred spiral with well-defined arms.