BETA
Chapter 1
The secret trio in the sky
Chapter 2
The celestial game of musical chairs
Chapter 3
Navigating the globe without a compass
Chapter 4
Legends of the unmoving anchor
YOUR GOAL
Master of The secret life of Polaris
Ch 1 · The secret trio in the sky
007skaty Match the stars with your sky buddies to discover how Polaris guides us north.
007skaty Polaris Triple Star System
You see a single light shining all alone, But three bright stars are sharing that throne.
007skaty William Herschel discovered this distant companion in 1779, which slowly circles the main Polaris pair from 2,400 astronomical
Fun Fact
Triple star system: Although Polaris looks like a single star, it is actually three distinct stars orbiting a shared center of gravity.
Glossary
triple star (noun)
A stellar system consisting of three stars that orbit a common center of mass. In 2006, the Hubble Space Telescope captured the first images of the North Star's hidden third companion.
A stellar system consisting of three stars that orbit a common center of mass. In 2006, the Hubble Space Telescope captured the first images of the North Star's hidden third companion.
Quiz
Approximately how many days does it take for the supergiant star Polaris Aa to complete one pulsation cycle of brightness?
Quiz
Polaris Aa belongs to which class of pulsating stars used by astronomers to measure cosmic distances?
Quiz
Which space telescope first successfully captured a clear image separating the close companions Polaris Aa and Polaris Ab in 2006?
Quiz
According to modern measurements from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, roughly how far is the Polaris system from Earth?
Quiz
Which of the stars in the Polaris triple system is the dominant yellow supergiant that we see from Earth?
Quiz
What type of star system is Polaris, which looks like a single point of light to the naked eye?