Slashdot Mirror
How Will the Constellations Change In 50K Years?
astroengine writes "The stars are not static points in the sky; they move over time. That means the constellations are shifting too. With the help of NASA astronomer Robert Hurt, five famous constellations are visualized 50,000 years in the future."
In 50,000 years, humans will probably not even be on Earth anymore. Either we will have annihilated ourselves, or we will have migrated to other worlds. In 6,000 years we have gone from the dawn of history to a worldwide information network and space travel. In 9 times that time, we should be much further along!
What would those constellations look like from our new homes near other star systems?
The conclusion is: not very much. The little dipper will become sort of triangular instead of rectangular. The Big Dipper and Orion will be mostly unchanged as far as anyone cares (Orion's shield will warp, but the belt--which is the only thing most people look at--will remain identical), and the only other changes discussed are to incredibly ancillary constellations like Hydra.
OTOH, there's absolutely zero discussion of a few of the stars most people have heard of and care about or any of the widely recognizable constellations outside of the big/little dippers. Will Polaris still be the North Star, or will it be replaced? Cassiopeia's Chair has famously become more and more W shaped--what will it look like as time passes? Will the Southern Cross--the flag of Australia, New Zealand, and several other southern hemisphere countries--remain the same?
Focusing on one small star in Taurus drifting slightly? Really?
rage, rage against the dying of the light
If nothing else, the earth wobbles on it's axis every 14,000 years (I think that is the number). Polaris certainly won't be due north then.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Just run Stellarium and set the date 50K ahead and you will have your answers.
It goes once around in about 26000 years so 13000 years would be be maximum displacement of Polaris from North, but its proper motion across the sky will move Polaris away by the time the pole returns anyway.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
You think in 50K years you'll learn the difference between its and it's? Think that somehow it's = it is will start to sink in?
Yep. The north star changes identity fairly frequently--that's part of why I put that in there.
It just seems really odd for an article on this topic to omit discussions of many real changes in stars and constellations that people actually know about while dedicating time to a slight deformation of the Big Dipper (which at least is near the top of known constellations, but apparently isn't changing much) along with discourses on Hydra and one little star in Taurus drifting.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Not so much what the constellations looked like, when they were first dreamed up, but more what the fuck they were smoking?
I can't draw stick figures (even XKCD), and yet I can easily tell that none of the constellations look like what they're supposed to.
It'll come in handy when we try to use the stargate...
weinersmith
Will people be born under the sign of *broken* snake, etc? ;-)
And if someone wants to know what the constellations look like from 5k light years away today (or in 50k years), please run Celestia (http://www.shatters.net/celestia/)
Bonus -- modpacks allow real time simulation of spacecraft from Star Wreck to Blake's 7 and from Red Dwarf via Battlestar Galactica to Star Wars.
Everyone's chance to make the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs.
I just did my horoscope with that information and clearly I was born to early, because instead of the rather bland 'Something is on your mind. See that the matter is solved.' it was 'You are the Ruler of the Universe.'.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
RS232 support should still be around even if humanity goes extinct.
what bothers me even more, is that the now picture for the little dipper, isn't even remotely near how it looks outside my window.
also she writes it won't be a dipper, which is wrong, it's just that two of the stars change roles.
Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
Considering the growth of light pollution, the easiest way to visualize what constellations will look like in 50k years is to picture a giant purple sky that's slightly pinkish at the horizons.
A more interesting change to Orion would be Betelguese going supernova (and that event becoming visible on Earth) in the next 50,000 years.
Betelgeuse is already old for its size class and will explode relatively soon compared to its age. At the current distance of Betelgeuse from the Earth, such a supernova explosion would be the brightest recorded; outshining the Moon in the night sky and becoming easily visible in broad daylight.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
The Big Dipper and Orion will be mostly unchanged as far as anyone cares (Orion's shield will warp, but the belt--which is the only thing most people look at--will remain identical)
Betelgeuse might go nova.
I sure hope someone could tell me if these findings tell us if the stars will be right during the next 50k years... It would make me at ease knowing how much time we have left before the great old ones... unless, of course, they are coming soon. Even then, I'd like to have the information so I could make preparations (namely, leave this world.)
I plan to be dead then. Why should I care?
From 3:10
Betelgeuse will most likely go supernova within 5000 years, it's a red super giant at the end of it's life.
Polaris will no longer be the North Star, but that will be more because of the precession of Earth's rotation axis than because of any movements on Polaris' part.
http://www.stellarium.org/
"From The Earth" is rather prosaic when you compare it to 3 dimensions. Look at any constellation from the side. The distances are usually much greater than the apparent angular separation as seen from Earth. It makes it quite obvious that 'constellation' is as synonymous with 'illusion' as it is with anything else. But from the side you can see that some groupings hold, such as the majority of Taurus. Most of it is an open cluster, so of course things won't change much in 50K years, the members are moving together through the sky on parallel paths. And it's the cluster that's moving more than the local stars, so the one "moving" in these pictures is really just getting passed by.
Earth's (Sol's) location as it moves affects these, but not as much as its position over a much longer time scale, like 250M years. In that time you can see the milky way wash up and down the sky a few times, like a huge wave. Seen from outside the galaxy, it's obvious why. The sun and the local group of stars in traveling around the galactic center, but the orbit swings back and forth through the galactic plane two and a half times as it oscillates it way around the center. We'll lose almost all the constellations at the peaks because we'll be outside the populated arms.
All this makes 50K years from one viewpoint rather humdrum. It also suggests an answer to one of the SETI questions, why aren't they here. If technical and traveling civilizations exist in the numbers supposed, and they wanted to go to other stars, they would probably want to go to those they know would be in the neighborhood for some time. Among the last they would consider visiting would be a small group of tiny stars, none greater than 8.5 absolute magnitude, that used to belong to another galaxy ripped to shreds by this one and on a trajectory taking them out of the plane of the majority of stars. For half the next 50 million years they'll be more isolated than the present 90% of the way out from the center position. And on each pass-through more and more of these interlopers will be captured by the galactic arms, so who can say where they'll end up, IF they slow down and hang around. They could get thrown out of their own grouping entirely and end up hovering around in the galactic halo too far from anyplace to be accessible (relatively). So why go to those, when there's thousands times more stable members of the galactic arms? All that disruption makes it unlikely there's any life on those tiny galactic fast-walkers anyway.
But if we did happen to get thrown out of the local group's obit and outside the galaxy, no more constellations then. Instead we'd have the entire galaxy all on one side, in one hemisphere of the sky. With a view like that, who needs constellations?
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
The north star changes because our Earth-based coordinate system drifts over time. TFA is discussing real changes due to star motion.
constellation's cancelled
Hopefully before then they'll start using the constellation forms in H.A. Rey's The Stars ; I really don't understand why so many references still use the shapeless randomly-connect-the-dots versions. Is it a copyright issue, maybe?
The Big Dipper will become The Big Doper.
Table-ized A.I.
the constellations look just as little like what they represent in both times
www.RacquetUp.org - Helping Detroit Youth
I always thought that learning the constellations was a waste of time. Now I have proof.