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Activity Discussion Science & Technology What keeps the North Star stuck at exactly North? Reply To: What keeps the North Star stuck at exactly North?

  • Shivani Thakkar

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    June 29, 2021 at 8:13 am
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    The daily movement of stars in the sky is caused by the rotation of the earth, the star is closer to the center of the earth’s orbit (an imaginary line that runs directly from the north to the South, into space), moving in space. There is nothing special about Polaris except that he is currently sitting near the earth’s rotating axis in the North. Because it is so close to the axis, Polaris travels very slowly in the night sky.

    Third, Polaris is incompatible with the earth’s orbit around the earth. There is very little chance that any star will end up in direct contact with the earth’s axis. Polaris lies at a point of 0.736 degrees farther north. Because the North Star is not exactly in orbit around the earth, it is actually orbiting the night sky. The arc is so small that people cannot see it. In addition, the rotation axis of the earth is not fully fixed. Because the earth is not perfectly round but is attacking the equator, the earth’s gravitational pull is not in perfect harmony. This inconsistency creates a very small and slow movement in the earth that turns the axis of the earth’s rotation away from Polaris. In about 3000 years, a star named Gamma Cephei will eventually be closer to the earth’s orbit than Polaris, so it will be the new “North Star”.

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