January 9, 2006

Not just one North Star, but Three

HubbleSite - There's More to the North Star Than Meets the Eye - 1/9/2006

By using the full capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope, Astronomers have verified that Polaris, the North Pole Star, is not just a single star, but actually a trinary star system! Its been known for a while that Polaris had a relatively distant companion, but the Hubble verified that Polaris A actually has a close companion--a mere 2 billion miles away. The companion is a mediocre main sequence star, one reason why its been lost in the glare and power of the Polaris A supergiant.


Posted by Jvstin at January 9, 2006 7:48 PM
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