Something Strange Is Happening to the North Star Polaris

Something Strange Is Happening to the North Star Polaris

In the vast expanse of the night sky, amidst the many twinkling stars and distant galaxies, there exists a celestial beacon that has captured the imagination of explorers, sailors, and dreamers for centuries. This guiding light, steadfast and unwavering, is none other than Polaris, the North Star.

But lately there have been some reports that something strange is happening to our guiding light in the night sky. So what is all the recent hype about? We’ll take a look at what researchers are saying.

Get ready to join us on a mesmerizing cosmic journey to the North Star, and find out what astronomers are now saying about the strange and unknown things happening to Polaris.

We are on social media:

The Destiny voice:

Sources:

[davidwalker]

All of these stars have been around for billions of years acting normally. But by a strange coincidence they have all started misbehaving at the same time as You Tube surfaced.

[nunyabitnezz]

If you’ve been to high school you can start the video at eight minutes.

[johnkochen]

I have known how to find Polaris since I was 8 because, back then (1960), we had no social media but we DID have public libraries.

[richardpark]

Polaris provides much more than a marker of true north. Its location almost directly overhead the north pole also provides the ability to establish latitude. For example, if you observe Polaris at an altitude of 90 degrees above the horizon (directly overhead), you are at latitude 90 degrees north and you are at the north pole. If you observe Polaris at an altitude of 28.21 degrees, you are at latitude 28.21 degrees north, the latitude of Midway. Which would be incredibly useful to know if you were sailing across the Pacific and intended to land at Midway because you needed more fuel, water and food and would die without them! Mariners knew and exploited the utility of Polaris for centuries. Fixing your latitude in the northern hemisphere is ridiculously simple: all you need is a plumb bob, a protractor, and a clear night sky! Unfortunately, establishing longitude was far more difficult due to its dependence on accurate time keeping. The need for which drove the development of ever more accurate clocks. But that's a different story! Cheers!

[reBornX]

2 min video was stretched to 13 min 🤷🏼‍♂️

[babalonkie]

"Nothing in the Universe is impossible!"

👌

[kenmason]

"The more we learn about the cosmos the less we understand" Truer word have not been spoken, more or less. Thank you for the nice video and graphics, Ken.

[torhildsvendsen]

Denne videoen vil jeg se om igjen og om igjen....Takk 😍

[richardmercer]

Can't wait for Vega -- it's much brighter than Polaris! What's that? Nonsense! I'm going to live forever...

[Kair]

Has anyone considered that the reversal of Polaris’ pulsation rate could be caused by an interaction with the galactic magnetic sheet, which is currently undergoing a reversal in our galactic neighborhood? Just a thought. . .

[ronanzann]

This is one of the most comical videos that I've seen regarding stars. You FINALLY made a statement that was true when you announced that you don't know how large Polaris is, or how far away it is. As for everything else you have ! Wrong !

[juslewissr]

I don't know if it's due to the fact that I watch similar channels with better content or what, but this video felt severely lacking, especially of any energy, and was far harder to sit through than it should have been. I have no trouble at all sitting through 30-40 minute long videos done by other channels -- containing the same content and information -- without any issues or urges to watch something else. Regardless, this was a two minute video stretched out to 13 minutes that somehow managed to fall short despite being the type of content I find the most intriguing to watch.

[ProJanitor]

For so long, Polaris has been an invaluable asset to humanity, but never knew it.

In life, you may never know just how many people regard you as their own North Star ❤

[littlestonliest]

"Destiny" states that Cepheid variable stars, like our North Star have their distances from Earth precisely calculated using the 'Stellar Evolution Model.' On the other hand, because of the variable nature of Polaris, the distance can not be measured precisely. Perhaps "Destiny" forgot the North Star & Polaris are the exact same star.

[tremaincheerful]

12 minutes 20sec.: Researchers are "trying to get as many measurements in as they can when the stare rotates across our field of view". However, Polaris is the NORTH STAR you fools, it' is ALWAYS in the sky, at the same spot, day and night, if you are in the northern hemisphere. It does not rotate across our field of view at all, nor does any star. The Earth rotates, bringing them into and out of one's sky view.

[callyman]

I've not even watched this and I can tell you it's moved. I look at my compass daily and I can say our magnetic north has moved over 10 degrees in the last 3 months

[SueFerreira]

We do not know what is happening to the Pole Star now. The Polar Star is 323 light years away, so the light we see today left the star in 1701.

[johncraig]

The bowl & handle of the Little Dipper asterism is not always left of Polaris. That's kind of a bizarre suggestion to look for it left of Polaris to find the Little Dipper.

[Dave-tyqp]

So in other words, nothing strange is happening to the north star, you just noticed something about it that you didn't notice before.

[rbspider]

Yeah, I'm not so confident they can tell what stage of life they are in . Seems like they need to change what happens out there often.