Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word Σείριος (Latin script: Seirios ), meaning lit. 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated α CMa or Alpha CMa. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, Sirius is almost twice ...
Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and the second-brightest star in the night sky. It is also designated α Carinae, which is romanized ( transliterated) to Alpha Carinae. With a visual apparent magnitude of −0.74, it is outshone only by Sirius .
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion, [b] and is known as the middle "star" in the "sword" of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with an apparent magnitude of 4 ...
The night sky is the nighttime appearance of celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon . Natural light sources in a night sky include moonlight, starlight, and airglow, depending on location and timing. Aurorae light up the skies above the ...
The Great Oxidation Event ( GOE) or Great Oxygenation Event, also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Revolution, Oxygen Crisis or Oxygen Holocaust, [ 2] was a time interval during the Earth 's Paleoproterozoic era when the Earth's atmosphere and shallow seas first experienced a rise in the concentration of free oxygen. [ 3]
Alnilam (ε Orionis) is a singular B0 supergiant, approximately 2,000 light-years away from Earth and magnitude 1.69. It is the 29th-brightest star in the sky and the fourth-brightest in Orion. It is 375,000 times more luminous than the Sun. [11] Its spectrum serves as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified.
Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor (upper right). Big Dipper and Ursa Minor in relation to Polaris. A view of Polaris in a small telescope. Polaris B is separated by 18 arc seconds from the primary star, Polaris A. A 4 day time lapse of Polaris illustrating its Cepheid type variability.
From an astronomy standpoint, planets go retrograde when it looks like they’re moving backward in the sky. By the way, this is an optical illusion: NASA stresses that the planets don’t ...