Ursa Minor Ursa Minor Ursa Minor (Latin: "Lesser Bear", contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation in the Northern Sky. Like the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, hence the North American name, Little Dipper: seven stars with four in its bowl like its partner the Big Dipper. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Ursa Minor has traditionally been important for navigation, particularly by mariners, because of Polaris being
Ursa Major I Dwarf −6.75, meaning that it is less luminous than some stars, like Deneb in the Milky Way. It is comparable in luminosity to Rigel. It has been described as similar to the Sextans Dwarf Galaxy. Both galaxies are ancient and metal-deficient. It estimated to be located at a distance of about 330,000 light-years (100 kpc) from the Earth. That is about twice the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud; the largest and most luminous satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. There was another object called "Ursa Major Dwarf", discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1949. It was designated as Palomar 4. Due