Fast Facts: Oct. 5
October 5, 2010
- It’s known as the Plough in England and the Casserole in France; in America, we call it the Big Dipper.
- Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system, but it’s so dim that it cannot be seen with the naked eye.
- Originally, the Milky Way wasn’t the name of our galaxy, but the name of a much smaller belt of stars that form a whiteish glow across Earth’s sky at night.
- The “”dog days”” of summer are so-named because the period marks the time of year that Sirius (the dog star) is seen rising and seting with the Sun.
- Although they appear close in the sky when viewed from Earth, stars in some constellations are actually thousands of light years away from one another.
