Astronomy Facts

How many astronomy facts can you think of?To count the stars in the universe we need a one followed by 22 zeros. Now realize that many of those stars are surrounded by plants. Then consider all the moons that orbit the planets, the comets and asteroids, the galaxies these stars form, the nebulae and black holes and everything else out there. The number of facts and amount of data is staggering. This short discussion won't cover everything. But it will be a lot of fun.

The data on the brightest star as seen from Earth are good astronomy facts. Let's ignore the sun, it's too close. The sun is so bright that it washes out all of the other stars in the daylight sky. In a the brightness scale we'll use, lower numbers are brighter. In the scale we'll use the sun is 26.73, and the moon is -12.6. With that in mind, here are the top 5.

#5 is the Arabic word for eagle or vulture, Vega. It's about 25 light years away from the Earth, with a magnitude of .03. When looking at these astronomy facts remember that brightest from Earth doesn't mean largest or brightest. 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's about four light years from Earth with a magnitude of -.01.

At #3, by the known astronomy facts is Arcturus. That's the Greek word for Guardian on the bear. Arcturus is 37 light-years from Earth.

#2 is Canopus. In reality it's the brightest of all of these top five stars. However, it's 313 light-years away from Earth, so it looks second brightest as seen from this planet. It has a -.62 magnitude as seen by humans on this planet.

#1 is reserved for serious, meaning scorching in the Greek language. Sirius is also known as the Dog Star because it's the brightest star in the constellation of Big Dog. Only 9 light-years separate Sirius and the earth, that's the second nearest in this top five list. It's appears to be the brightest star in the sky, with a magnitude of -1.44.

There are many more astronomy facts out there. But consider it next time you see the stars in the night sky.