What is Old Man Star? The naming of the old man s star

In the former Qing Dynasty more than 200 years ago, there was a more effective emperor, that is, Kangxi, who ruled for 61 years. It is precisely because he made great efforts to make the country prosperous, attached importance to science and technology, and paid attention to the development of production that the so-called "prosperous era of Kangqian" appeared in the history books. Kangxi did read a lot of books in his life, and he also knew many stars in the sky, and he could name many bright stars.

But once he was almost unable to get off the stage by the old man's star, that was when he went south to inspect one night, one night, Kangxi boarded the observatory in Nanjing, in order to show off his talent, he pointed to the stars, and his mouth was like a river, but later when he pointed to a bright star that was very low from the horizon in the south, he suddenly stopped talking, and the civil and military attachés were also anxious to scratch their ears and cheeks. Fortunately, there was an entourage who was more clever, and hurriedly presented Kangxi with a star map. Kangxi looked carefully, and then said with a sigh of relief:

Oh, this is the old man's star. ”

The old man's star is the bottom of the ship, and its brightness is equal, or it can be said to be a minus 1 magnitude star. In the stellar world, it is only slightly inferior to the Sirius, and is the well-known "runner-up". It has been determined that the old man star is about 200 light-years away from us, its radius is 46 times that of the Sun, and its light is equivalent to 6,000 times that of the Sun.

Its declination is 6°24 (or 96°) and its declination δ 52°42.

In our country, the old man star is an auspicious star, that is, the birthday star in the three stars of "Fu, Lu and Shou", so it is also called the old birthday star, the Antarctic birthday star, the Antarctic fairy Weng and so on. As far away as the Zhou Dynasty, my country already had a "birthday temple", and there are many descriptions in classics such as "Journey to the West", "Fengshen Bang", and "The Legend of the White Snake". The great poet Li Bai also has the poem "Hengshan Cangcang enters the purple underworld, looks down at the old man star of Antarctica, blows back the snow of the five peaks, and often flies flowers into the cave".

For example, in the famous book "The Divine Comedy" of the European Renaissance, the author Dante regards the three stars of Canopas, Akenar, and Vermarhat as the "three torches" of the heavenly court, symbolizing faith, hope and fraternity respectively. Canopas is the bottom of the boat, and the other two are Bojiang (Zhongming Water Committee) and Nanyu (Zhongming Beiluoshimen).

The old man's star, or the star of the ship, is called Canopus in the west, which means "the navigator of the ship of King Menareas of Sparta". The apparent magnitude, the absolute magnitude distance is 200 light years, the luminosity is 6000 times the luminosity of the sun, and the mass is 12 times that of the sun. The ancients believed that it symbolized longevity, so it was also called "birthday star".

Blue-white, second only to Sirius in brightness. It can be seen near the horizon in the south of our country.

The Old Man Star (the first magnitude star in the Constellation of the Boat, the second star in the sky) is the brightest star in the Constellation of the Southern Hemisphere. It is believed that its English name (canopus) comes from the captain who carried the Greek army on an expedition to the city of Troy. Before the space age, it was difficult for humans to calculate the distance of the old star, so it was speculated to be 1,200 light-years away.

Now, we know that Old Man is the most powerful star within 700 light-years away.

Its English name, Canopus, means "Navigator of the Ship of King Menareas of Sparta", and is named after the captain who carried the Greek army on an expedition to the city of Troy. The name "Canopus" has two common names, both of which are listed in naturalist Richard Hinckley Allen's book Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning.

One of them is from the myth of the Trojan War, and the other comes from the Egyptian Coptic word "kahi nub", which means **earth. Near the mouth of the Nile, there is a ruined Egyptian port named after Canopus, which is located at the site of the Nile War.

In Arabic, the old man's star is called [5]. Ancient Persian astronomers and astrologers called the old man an agasti, and the bestiary of Persian literature, Panchatantra (Five Books), later became known as The Lights of Canopus or Anvar-i-Suhaili.

The Old Man Star is the second brightest star of the day, and the modern name is the Constellation Star. The ancients attached great importance to it, but unfortunately, its location was too far south to be seen in the north of our country, and only the Yangtze River basin and the places south of it could be seen in the low southern sky for a short period of time. Because of this, people also call it "Antarctic Old Man Star" and "Antarctic Immortal", of course, it is actually far away from Antarctica.

Friends in the south, every year on the evening of the second lunar month, after finding Sirius located due south, then look down, and you can find it above the horizon. Li Bai has a poem: "Hengshan Cangcang enters the purple underworld, and looks down at the Antarctic Old Man Star", which means that on Nanyue Heng Mountain, you can see the Old Man Star.

Contrary to Sirius's embarrassment, the Old Man Star was always an auspicious star in the eyes of the ancient Chinese. The astrologer believes that the appearance of the old man star is a sign of peace in the world, and seeing this star will bring peace to the country and the people, so the poet has the sentence "Every healthy day in the sea, and the birthday star in the sky". Shouxing is the old man's star, because of the longevity of the Lord, so it is also called Shouxing, in the folk his image is a meat-headed high-headed, with a long cane with an elbow, holding a big longevity peach in his hand.

The birthday star in "Journey to the West" was vividly called "the old man with a meat head" by Zhu Bajie.

"Aracea" is a medicinal herb, and its name also comes from the old man's star, because the old man's star was also called "Aracea" at the earliest. It is said that the tubers of these plants are round and white, and they look like the old flesh of the birthday boy, so they are called "Aracea".

There are no rows found around the old man's star so far.

Du star exists.

Old man star zhi

It's the ship's bottom dao

It is located in the southern sky, about the distance from the Tainei Yang system.

Capacitance 310 light years. Old Man Star is a white supergiant star with apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude, second only to Sirius in brightness, and the second brightest star in the whole day.

The radius of the old man star is about 49 million kilometers, which is times the radius of the Sun, and the surface temperature is 7350 K. If placed in the center of the solar system, the old man would occupy 75% of the inner space of Mercury's orbit, and if there was a planet suitable for living things, it would be 3 times the distance between the old man and Pluto.

Since the position of the old man star is at the declination of -52 ° 42, although it can theoretically be seen in the area south of 35 degrees north latitude, but in fact, due to the influence of terrain, weather and local light pollution, even in Guangzhou, China, the maximum horizon height of the old man star is only 14 degrees.

These stars may evolve into red giants or from red giants. According to the current theory of star formation and evolution, it is difficult to have planets around such stars. In fact, no planets have been found around the Old Man Star.

Canopus, the constellation of the Ship, is located about 310 light-years from the Solar System. Luminous magnitude, absolute magnitude, second brightest star in the sky after Sirius in brightness. The ancients believed that it symbolized longevity, so it was also called "birthday star".