The brightest star in the world name. The brightest stars in the night sky

Details Oleg Nekhaev

Zvezdnoe the sky that you see on this map (below) reflects the real position of the planets, bright stars and constellations in this moment. It is enough to make adjustments to the program settings and you will see everything on the screen based on your location. How to set up the “starry sky”? How to see the most interesting things in space?

At the top left of the map there are two lines: date and time, below - coordinates. The first line automatically displays the time you opened this page. Want to see what the sky will look like later? Enter the year, month, day and time to see how the stars are positioned in the sky at the desired time. Depending on the geographical point there will be different positions of the luminaries and planets. To set the desired coordinates, click on the second line. Enter your latitude and longitude if you know them, or use the navigator to find them below. Write the name of the city (preferably in Latin), click Search. If he is successful. Close the panel. If the “select” window appears, click on this column and select what you are looking for from the options. Close the window and check the new values.

To find out the coordinates, you can use the Yandex map search. Enter the name of the area ( settlement) and click "search". The coordinates of the location will appear on the right. Write them down. For most locations, Wikipedia can also help. Enter the name of the city into the search and you will see the necessary numbers in the right column. Attention! Enter data without the degree and minute symbols. After the whole number, put a dot and add the remaining numbers without separation. Write down the latitude first. By default, the coordinates of the center of Moscow are configured.

The star map is very convenient not only for preparing views through a telescope, but also for ordinary observations of space objects, without the use of technical means. You will always know what planets are shining in the sky or what the name of the noticeable star you saw today is, and what the name of the constellation that appears in the sky is called. You will be able to watch the passage of low-orbit satellites of the Iridium system. And it is very important to watch them at a certain point. These devices periodically emit surprisingly bright flashes. Reminiscent of the fall of noticeable meteorites. The brightness of this phenomenon is such that it is second only to the Sun and Moon. Or you can predict in advance the flight path of the International space station. And you will wait for her to appear in a certain place in the starry sky. Live broadcast from the station is carried out in Siberia. And calculate exact time visible passage of the ISS in your location, you can on our page at this LINK .

A few clarifications. The starry sky in the diagram appears before us as if it were above our head. To really perceive it, you need to make a mental rotation of the image. The cardinal directions indicated on the diagram will help you get a correct idea. On the map you see them along the edges of the circle. You need to identify them in reality. Determine where North is at your location using a compass or other means, for example, using GPS-Glonass navigation in programs on your smartphone or tablet. And then mentally place a map of the starry sky based on the identified data, or rotate the configured map using the cursor.

Notation. Lilac color The names of the constellations are marked on the map. White- names of the brightest stars. Turquoise The outline shows the boundaries of the Milky Way. Arc Red reflects the ecliptic - the trajectory (projection) of the movement of the Sun. The planets of our star system follow the same path. They are displayed orange color. Light green radiant points of meteor showers are shown. During periods of their activity, on some day, you can see emanating from this area " star Rain". May you be lucky.

Do not forget that in the northern hemisphere, where the vast majority of visitors to our site are located, the most significant coordinate star is Polaris. It’s easy to find in the sky if you take the famous constellation to help Ursa Major (Ursa Major), or rather her Big bucket. Its second star in the handle is highlighted on the map - Mizar. So, if you draw a line up through the last two stars of the bucket, then after five of the same distances as between these stars, you will find Polaris. She is the only one who is in one place, and everyone else seems to revolve around her. She also points to the North. That's why she was always called a guide.
With others visible bright stars It's not difficult to figure it out. Some of the most notable ones...

Deneb is one of the largest and is the most powerful star of all the 25 brightest stars in the sky known to science. In one day, Deneb emits more light than our Sun does in 140 years. A very distant star.

Sirius– according to perception, it is the brightest star for us. Because it is located much closer to us than other luminaries, with the exception, of course, of the Sun. In fact, it is double. Moreover, it has significant mobility. In about 11 thousand years, Sirius will no longer be visible to those living in Europe.

Arcturus. Orange giant. One of the brightest stars. It can be seen all year round from Russia. Arcturus became the first star that could be seen through a telescope during the day. This happened more than three hundred years ago.

Vega. A young, rapidly rotating star. The best studied (if you do not take into account the Sun). The first one that we managed to photograph well. Apart from Antarctica, it can be seen from almost any other point in the world. Vega is one of the favorite “heroines” of science fiction writers.

Altair- a star quite close to us. It is located only 159 trillion kilometers away. Compare: the mentioned Deneb is almost a hundred times further from us.

Rigel- blue-white supergiant. More than seventy times larger than the Sun. Located so far away from us that the light we now see was emitted by a star 860 light years ago. Compare: light from the Moon reaches us in one second at a distance of about 400 thousand kilometers. Rigel is a star of incredible power in its luminosity and monstrously distant. And, if somewhere there is an observer, then he perceives it as his sun. By the way, from that corner of the Universe, it is impossible even with the most powerful telescope to see our Sun, not to mention the Earth on which we live...

Please pay attention! 1. Read the instructions for displaying the star map carefully. Many people ask questions about the location of stars and planets, to which they can get answers themselves by entering the appropriate data in the map settings. 2. There are visible “parades of planets” and invisible ones (without the use of binoculars and telescopes). The latter happens quite often. The nearest visible parade of five planets from Russian territory will occur only in 2022. Don't believe the frequent reports about the "end of the world" and that planetary positions can affect the Earth's rotation.

Clear skies and successful observations to you!

What is the brightest star in the sky? Google will tell us that it is Sirius, and it will be right, but only partly.

Sirius is indeed the brightest star in the night sky, but this is only because it is also one of the stars closest to us: from the Sun to Sirius is only 8.6 light years: by astronomical standards, it does not even live in the “neighboring apartment” ", and in our other room.

It is worth adding that Sirius is slowly drifting towards the Sun, which is why its brightness is likely to increase in the near future.

However, in general, by the standards of our galaxy, Sirius is a very modest phenomenon: being a white star of spectral class A, it is only twice the size of our Sun. More precisely, this concerns the component of Sirius visible to us: in fact, it is a double star, the second component of which is a white dwarf - the “mummy” of an older, outdated star.

Relative sizes of main sequence stars depending on spectral type: Sun - G, Sirius - A.

Canopus is a white-yellow supergiant (spectral class F). It is about 10 times heavier than the Sun, about 65 times larger, and shines about 15 thousand times more intensely.

True, Canopus is not visible in our sky: it is familiar to the inhabitants of the Southern Hemisphere. In the northern sky, its closest and most famous “relative” (another yellow-white supergiant) is the North Star. It's funny that when sailing in the southern hemisphere, these stars are equally used as standard landmarks.

Canopus is located 310 light years away, and because of this, only a tiny fraction of its light reaches us. If it were located at the same distance as Sirius, it would be second in brightness only to the Moon. Alas, life in this sense is unfair, and we are deprived of such an impressive sight.

And the Polar Star is not much noticeably smaller ("only" 6 solar masses, 37 solar radii and 2000 solar brightnesses), and is also located further - 440 light years, so it is not even among the ten brightest stars in the night sky.

The largest star visible from Earth is Rigel. It appears much less bright to us, through Sirius, Canopus or, for example, Vega, but this is because it is very far away: almost 900 light years. But in fact, Rigel is a real monster: a blue supergiant, twice as heavy as Canopus (almost 20 solar masses), 75 times larger than the Sun and almost ten thousand times brighter!

But there are stars in our galaxy, in comparison with which even Rigel will seem like a dwarf. These are the so-called hypergiants, which can be hundreds of times larger and millions of times larger. brighter than the sun.

The most famous of these is Eta Carinae, or Foramen, probably the largest and brightest star visible from Earth. This Carinae belongs to the so-called class. bright blue (spectral class O) variables, that is, stars that significantly change their brightness during observations.

Eta Carinae appears to have a mass of about 120 solar masses, about 800 times the mass of our star. Thanks to this, it has been known to astronomers since ancient times, although it is an impressive 7.5 thousand light years away from us.

Eta Carinae, as we have already said, is a variable star: astronomers have recorded significant changes in its brightness over time. So, in early XIX century, Eta Carinae significantly increased its brightness in the sky, and in 1838 it took third place in terms of brightness observed from Earth - a very impressive result, taking into account the colossal distance separating us. However, then it began to quickly lose its brightness, and by the beginning of the 20th century it became invisible to the naked eye. Over the past century, its brightness remained approximately the same, undergoing minor fluctuations, but in 1995-1996 it began to shine almost twice as brightly, again becoming visible to the naked eye.

This unstable behavior of such supermassive stars is explained by the constant struggle between the force of gravity, which tends to compress and compact the star, and the pressure of the star’s radiation, which, on the contrary, tends to tear it apart. At peak luminosity, the star actively ejects its own matter into the surrounding space. Similar processes occur on the Sun (the notorious solar flares and those following them magnetic storms: processes of reflection of flows of charged particles by the earth’s magnetosphere). However, in the case of hypergiants like Eta Carinae, these processes are very dramatic: according to astronomers, during an outbreak of the 19th century it could have lost at least 10% of its mass, i.e. erupted hot gas equal in mass to ten Suns. The consequence of this process was the cooling of the star and a decrease in its radiation: gravity again began to prevail and pull part of the ejected matter back into the star.

In the case of Eta Carinae, the physics of its life are complicated by the fact that it has a companion star - also quite massive (about 50 solar masses). Rotating around each other, these stars can exchange matter, which, superimposed on the “own” processes inside each of the stars, can also lead to a change in luminosity.

The gas erupted by Eta Carinae and its "companion" forms a cloud of hot gas known as the Homunculus Nebula.

Similar clouds surround other famous stars of these classes. Because of these (and other) clouds, many such stars are, in principle, impossible to see in the optical range (i.e., even with the most powerful optical telescope). They can only be “considered” in the infrared range - like, for example, the other largest star in our galaxy, the Pistol star, or V4647 Sgr. In theory, we should be able to see it perfectly from Earth: it should be in 8-9 place on the list of the brightest stars in our sky. Alas, it is completely obscured from us by clouds of cosmic dust.

How more star- the shorter the life span allotted to her. If the Sun has about 10-12 billion years, 5 of which have already passed, then Eta Carinae and other hypergiants will probably live no more than a million years. At the same time, astronomers believe that most Eta Carinae has already lived out its allotted time: in approximately 10-20 thousand years it will become a supernova, after which, apparently, it will collapse into a black hole. It is assumed that the outbreak of Eta Carinae as a supernova will be felt even on Earth: powerful radiation can disable communications satellites.

And the largest known to date is the star known as R136a1. It is more than 300 times heavier than the Sun (twice the mass of Eta Carinae and 15 times that of Rigel) and is approximately 10 million times more luminous. Thanks to this, we know about its existence, although it is located already in the neighboring galaxy - the Andromeda Nebula, at a distance of 165 thousand light years. Naked eye you can’t see her, and even in amateur telescope not easy to find star cluster, of which she is a part. Before its discovery, it was believed that stars of this mass could not exist at all: it was assumed that the upper limit of the mass of a single star should be about 150 solar, and more massive objects collapse into a black hole already in the early stages of their life. However, the Universe never tires of giving us surprises. And this makes the process of studying it incredibly exciting.

People have always admired starry sky. Back in the Stone Age, living in caves and dressing in skins, at night they raised their heads to the sky and admired the glowing lights.


Today the stars still attract our gaze. We know well that the brightest of them is the Sun. But what are the others called? Which stars, besides the Sun, are the brightest?

1. Sirius

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. It is not much higher (only 22 times), but due to its proximity to Earth it is more noticeable than others. The star can be seen from almost anywhere globe, except northern regions.

In 1862, astronomers discovered that Sirius had a companion star. Both of them revolve around a single center of mass, but only one of them is visible from Earth - Sirius A. According to scientists, the star is gradually approaching the Sun. Its speed is 7.6 km/s, so it will become even brighter over time.

2. Canopus

Canopus is part of the constellation Carina and is second in brightness after Sirius. It belongs to the supergiants, exceeding the Sun in radius by 65 times.

Among all the stars located at a distance of 700 light years from Earth, Canopus has the greatest luminosity, but due to its remoteness it does not shine as brightly as Sirius. Once upon a time, before the invention of the compass, sailors used it as a guiding star.

3. Toliman

Toliman is also called Alpha Centauri. It is actually a binary system with stars A and B, but these stars are so close to each other that they cannot be distinguished with the naked eye. The third brightest in the sky is one of them - Alpha Centauri A.

There is another star in the same system - Proxima Centauri, but it is usually considered separately, and in terms of brightness it is not even included in the 25 stars with the highest luminosity.

4. Arcturus

Arcturus is an orange giant and shines brighter than other stars included in it. In different regions of the Earth it can be seen in different times years, but in Russia it is always visible.

According to the observations of astronomers, Arcturus is a variable star, that is, it changes its brightness. Every 8 days its brightness varies by 0.04 magnitude, which is explained by surface pulsation.

5. Vega

The fifth brightest star is part of the Lyra constellation and is the most studied after the Sun. Vega is located at a short distance from the solar system (only 25 light years) and is visible from anywhere on the planet, with the exception of Antarctica and the northern regions North America.

Around Vega there is a disk of gas and dust, which, under the influence of its energy, emits infrared rays.

6. Chapel

From an astronomical point of view, the star is interesting for its binary system. Capella is two giant stars separated by 100 million kilometers. One of them, called Capella Aa, is old and is gradually beginning to fade.


The second - Capella Ab - still shines quite brightly, but, according to scientists, the processes of helium synthesis have already ended there. Sooner or later, the shells of both stars will expand and touch each other.

7. Rigel

The luminosity of Rigel is 130 thousand times greater than the Sun. It is one of the most powerful stars in the Milky Way, but due to its distance from the solar system (773 light years), it is only seventh in brightness.

Like Arcturus, Rigel is considered a variable star and changes its brightness at intervals of 22 to 25 days.

8. Procyon

Procyon's distance from Earth is only 11.4 light years. Its system includes two stars - Procyon A (bright) and Procyon B (dim). The first is a yellow subgiant and shines about 7.5 times brighter than the Sun. Due to its age, over time it will begin to expand and shine much better.

It is believed that sooner or later it will increase to 150 times its current size, and then take on an orange or red color.

9. Achernar

In the list of the 10 brightest stars in the sky, Achernar ranks only ninth, but at the same time it is the hottest and the bluest. The star is located in the constellation Eridanus and shines 3000 times brighter than the Sun.

Interesting feature Achernara is a very fast rotation around its axis, as a result of which it has an elongated shape.

10. Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse's maximum luminosity is 105,000 times that of the Sun, but it is about 640 light-years from the solar system, so it is not as bright as the previous nine stars.


Because Betelgeuse's brightness gradually decreases from the center to the surface, scientists still cannot calculate its diameter.

The star Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky

The brightest star in the sky is undoubtedly Sirius. It shines in the constellation Canis Major and is clearly visible in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months.

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In the Southern Hemisphere, it is visible during summer, north of the Arctic Circle. The star is located approximately 8.6 light years from the Sun and is one of the closest stars to us. Its brilliance is the result of its true brightness and its proximity to us.

Sirius, one of the easiest objects for amateur astronomy, is very bright, with a magnitude of -1.46. Therefore, astrophotographers can get good photos of it.

At the same time, its brightness makes it a rather difficult subject to photograph - data processing requires good preparation.

However, many astro enthusiasts have managed to tame the scorching Sirius, as you can see in this exquisite photo taken on January 1, 2013.

Invisible satellite

Sirius B is visible to the left of the star

Back in the 19th century, astronomers, when studying Sirius, noticed that its trajectory, although straight, was subject to periodic fluctuations. In the projection of the starry sky, it (the trajectory) looked like a wavy curve.

Moreover, its periodic oscillations could be detected even over a short period of time, which in itself was surprising since we were talking about stars - which are billions of kilometers away from us. Astronomers have suggested that a hidden object that revolves around Sirius with a period of about 50 years is to blame for such “wiggles”.

18 years after the bold assumption, a small star was discovered near Sirius, which has a magnitude of 8.4 and is the first discovered white dwarf, and also the most massive, discovered to date.

List of the brightest stars

№	Name	Distance, St. years	Apparent value	Absolute value	Spectral class	Celestial hemisphere
0		0,0000158	−26,72	4,8	G2V
1		8,6	−1,46	1,4	A1Vm	South
2		310	−0,72	−5,53	A9II	South
3		4,3	−0,27	4,06	G2V+K1V	South
4		34	−0,04	−0,3	K1.5IIIp	Northern
5		25	0.03 (variable)	0,6	A0Va	Northern
6		41	0,08	−0,5	G6III + G2III	Northern
7		~870	0.12 (variable)	−7	B8Iae	South
8		11,4	0,38	2,6	F5IV-V	Northern
9		69	0,46	−1,3	B3Vnp	South
10		~530	0.50 (variable)	−5,14	M2Iab	Northern
11		~400	0.61 (variable)	−4,4	B1III	South
12		16	0,77	2,3	A7Vn	Northern
13		~330	0,79	−4,6	B0.5Iv + B1Vn	South
14		60	0.85 (variable)	−0,3	K5III	Northern
15		~610	0.96 (variable)	−5,2	M1.5Iab	South
16		250	0.98 (variable)	−3,2	B1V	South
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