All Topics  
Beta Ursae Minoris

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Beta Ursae Minoris
 
 
  Topics Beta Ursae Minoris Topic Home

Beta Ursae Minoris (ß UMi / ß Ursae Minoris) is the second brightest star in the bowl of the "Little Dipper," the constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 Ursa Minor
Ursa Minor

Ursa Minor is a constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for 'little bear', contrasting with Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 List of constellations....
. It also has the traditional name Kochab. Kochab's magnitude is 2.07. It is 16 degrees from Polaris. The star is an orange giant and is 126.4 ± 2.5 light years from Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
. It is 130 times more luminous than the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
. Kochab has a surface temperature of approximately 4,000 K
Kelvin

The kelvin is a Units of measurement of temperature and is one of the seven SI base units. The Kelvin scale is a Thermodynamic temperature scale where absolute zero, the theoretical absence of all thermal energy, is zero ....
.

Kochab and its neighbor Pherkad are both naked eye
Naked eye

The naked eye is a figure of speech referring to human visual perception that is unaided by enhancing equipment, such as a telescope or microscope....
 stars and are sometimes referred to as the "Guardians of the Pole".






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Beta Ursae Minoris'
Start a new discussion about 'Beta Ursae Minoris'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Beta Ursae Minoris (ß UMi / ß Ursae Minoris) is the second brightest star in the bowl of the "Little Dipper," the constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 Ursa Minor
Ursa Minor

Ursa Minor is a constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for 'little bear', contrasting with Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 List of constellations....
. It also has the traditional name Kochab. Kochab's magnitude is 2.07. It is 16 degrees from Polaris. The star is an orange giant and is 126.4 ± 2.5 light years from Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
. It is 130 times more luminous than the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
. Kochab has a surface temperature of approximately 4,000 K
Kelvin

The kelvin is a Units of measurement of temperature and is one of the seven SI base units. The Kelvin scale is a Thermodynamic temperature scale where absolute zero, the theoretical absence of all thermal energy, is zero ....
.

Kochab and its neighbor Pherkad are both naked eye
Naked eye

The naked eye is a figure of speech referring to human visual perception that is unaided by enhancing equipment, such as a telescope or microscope....
 stars and are sometimes referred to as the "Guardians of the Pole". They served as twin pole stars, Earth's North pole stars, from 1500 B.C. until 500 A.D. Neither star was as proximitous to the pole as Polaris is now. Due to precession of the equinoxes
Precession of the equinoxes

In astronomy, precession refers to a gravitationally-induced slow but continuous change in an astronomical body's rotational axis or orbital path....
, the previous holder of the title was Thuban
Thuban

Thuban is a star in the constellation of Draco . A relatively inconspicuous star in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere, it is historically significant as having been the north pole star in ancient times....
, and the next was the present-day Polaris
Polaris

Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor. It is very close to the north celestial pole , making it the current northern pole star....
. This succession of pole stars is a result of earth's precession
Precession

Precession refers to a change in the direction of the axis of a rotation object. In physics, there are two types of precession, torque-free and torque-induced, the latter being discussed here in more detail....
al motion.

The origin of the name Kochab is indistinct. It has sometimes been associated with a Hebrew word for star. The name "Kochab" may originate from Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 ?????? al-kawkab and means simply "the star".