How many facts are there to be known or learned about all the objects and phenomenon in our entire universe? Just think: there are about 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe, that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars; then there are many of those stars that have planets in orbit around them. Then consider the moons that orbit those planets and the comets and asteroids, the galaxies these stars form, the nebulae and black holes and everything else that’s out there. The amount of information and data is really quite mind-boggling. This article definitely will not contain every fact about astronomy, but they are very interesting facts nevertheless.

Shall we start by taking a look at a small aspect of astronomy: which are the brightest stars seen from the Earth? – except the Sun, that is, which is just about 250,000 times nearer than the next closest star. In fact, it is so bright that when the sky is viewed from the Earth, it’s light blinds out all the other stars in the sky during a phenomenon called daytime.

So, while reading this list, please bear in mind that according to the scale we are using, lower numbers are brighter: the Sun would be roughly -26.73, whereas the full moon is about -12.6; keeping that in mind, here are the top 5:

#5 is Vega, which means “falling eagle” in Arabic is in Lyra. It’s roughly 25 light years away and has a magnitude of 0.04.

When considering these astronomical facts, please remember that ‘brightest from Earth’ doesn’t mean largest or brightest. The Sun is not the largest or brightest star in the universe or even the galaxy, yet it appears so bright because it is so near compared to other stars.

#4 is Rigel – a very bright, bluish-white supergiant star in the constellation Orion. It is a binary star, with an average apparent magnitude of 0.12. It’s scientific name is Beta Orionis. Rigel is Arabic for ‘foot’. It’s about four light years from Earth.

#3 is Arcturus. The name is Latin/Greek and means ‘guardian of the bear’. This star is roughly 37 light years away. It is in the constellation of Bootes, behind The Great Bear. It has a magnitude of 0.00

#2 Canopus. Of the top five, Canopus, the Greek name for the pilot of the ship Argo in the stories about Jason and the Argonauts, is the brightest, but because it is 313 light years from Earth, it’s only second on this list of the five brightest stars seen from Earth. It has a magnitude of -.62.

#1 is Sirius, which translate from the Greek as ’scorching’. It’s also sometimes called the ‘Dog Star’ because it is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major, which means ‘The Big Dog’ in Latin. It is situated only 9 light years from Earth, which makes it easily the second closest of these top five. It has a magnitude of -1.44, which makes it very easily the brightest star that can be observed in the night sky.

These facts don’t even scratch the surface on the subject of astronomy but it’s something to think about anyway the next time you look up into the sky at night.

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Astronomy is the study of outer space. It is a serious science, but also a very pleasurable hobby. Therefore, whenever an astronomy picture of the day is offered to people, they usually welcome it. There are plenty of such pictures to choose from, and plenty of interesting objects out there to keep people looking.

Of course ,NASA is one of the primary sources for an astronomy picture of the day. This site, NASA.gov, shows a new image each and every day. There is also a section that shows videos. These could be used to create your own photo site. Saturn’s moon Enceladus was the ’star’ feature on November 5, 2008.

The photo was taken by a passing rocket. It gets down to details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects nearly 100% of all the light that hits it. Wear sunglasses. This moon is so unusual that Cassini will continue to fly by for more pictures later in its mission.

NASA maintains an archive of all the astronomy image of the day dating all the way back to June 16 of 1995. It was a ‘what if’ footage of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The photo is a computer generation. The most interesting feature is that the constellation Orion is visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light all the way around it. This causes some double vision.

September 8, 1995 was an amazing picture of the central part of the Milky Way galaxy taken by NASA’s COBE satellite. This area is normally invisible because of the dust hiding it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that amazing footage of our very symmetrical galaxy.

The astronomy picture of the day was the same on January 1st, 2000 and January 1st, 2001, the reason being because both dates displayed this image is that the majority of people thought of the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.

However, the third millennium actually commenced on January 1st, 2001. NASA figured it was just better to just do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html displays man’s view of the solar system as it progressed from mere objects orbiting the Earth, all the way to the ‘Big Bang’ creating the universe as we know it today.

NASA has thousands more days with their very own unique astronomy picture of the day. Visit their web site, NASA.gov to see them.

Astronomy: pictures of the day are fascinating to huge numbers of people. If you are fascinated by astronomy, go along to our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

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