Canopus

13,800 L ☉

Canopus ( α Carinae ) is the brightest star in the constellation keel of the ship. He is the second brightest star after Sirius in the night sky, but is so far south that it can not be seen from Central Europe. Only the southern part of Europe (Gibraltar, Malta, Crete) from it can be observed. Due to its position near the south pole of the ecliptic and the great brightness, it serves many spacecraft as a guiding star.

Name

"Alpha Carinae " is a name by the Bayer classification. Alpha ( α ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Carinae ( the genitive to Latin Carina, the ship's keel ) shows the membership of the constellation keel of the ship to.

Canopus was named after a ship helm in the service of the mythical king Menelaus, see Canopus ( Egyptian mythology). The Arabic terms Suhail or Suhel ( handsome, bright, glorious, carefree, effortless, quiet) are less common and could not prevail, as well as other stars such as Gamma Velorum or Suhail bear this name.

Physical Properties

Distance measurements for the star fluctuated initially 96-1200 light years. This Canopus could have been one of the most energetic star of the Milky Way. By 1989 put into earth orbit space telescope Hipparcos distance of about 310 light-years was determined by measuring the parallax.

The difficulties in measurement resulting from Canopus ' unusual spectral F0II. Stars of this class are rare and understood only to a limited extent, because you do not know if they which are located in the development towards a red giant or gone to another stage. This makes it difficult to estimate the intrinsic distance due to the brightness. Thus, the parallax was with satellite support, the only way to measure the distance correctly.

Canopus is 14,000 times more luminous than the Sun and the brightest star in a neighborhood of 700 light years. Brightness in the night sky, he is second only to Sirius, but which is only 8.6 light years away. Its diameter was determined to be 71.4 solar diameters by optical interferometry at the Very Large Telescope of ESO; from a surface temperature of about 7500 K. If the star results in the center of the solar system, its radius would be more than three-quarters of the distance from Mercury to the Sun. A planet with Earth-like temperatures and climatic conditions would have an approximately three times as large orbital radius to Canopus taking the Pluto around the Sun.

Canopus in the literature

In the written by Frank Herbert science fiction novel Dune cycle ( dt Dune ) is Canopus the central star of the planet Arrakis, where plays the main part of the plot.

In Friedrich Dürrenmatt's novella The order of the star Canopus appears as the hope of the protagonist F. in Chapter 23. Furthermore, it is especially in the Psalms of Solomon, to sing the world Astronauts mentioned Physicists in the drama.

Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos series of novels: Archive is Canopus ( next to Sirius and Puttiora ) the seat of power of the three star empires.

Port city of Canopus

The ancient city of Canopus in the Nile Delta in Egypt located south of latitude 32 ° North. This situation is characterized by the following effect: If you come by boat from the north, from Greece and approaches the then important port city of Canopus, so Canopus rises ( right time of day depending on the season it is assumed ) high enough above the horizon to as second- brightest star to become visible effect on the sky.