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."

Comments

That's pretty cool

[BadAnalogyGuy]

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?

How Will the Constellations Change In 50K Years?

[pthisis]

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?

Stellarium

[NeoMantas]

Just run Stellarium and set the date 50K ahead and you will have your answers.

Makes me wonder about ancient times

[MartinSchou]

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.

Re:Makes me wonder about ancient times

[ladoga]

You could also say that the empire shifted it's capital to Konstantinopolis, which was a central trade hub and easily defendable. Meanwhile the city of Rome became increasingly irrelevant and was lost to germanic tribes in 410 and 472AD. It was captured back by the Roman Empire, which later in medieval times the Pope (previously one of bishops of orthodox christian church)and his western vassals began to call Byzantine or Greek empire due to propaganda reasons. Interestingly it was the Pope who ruled the city of Rome after the Empire finally lost it to Lombards in 751 AD.

The empire that was centered in Konstantinopolis was ruled by emperors in direct succession to the ancient Roman emperors and the name of the state remained Imperium Romanum until it's very end in 1461 (fall of Trebizond). Their neighbors called them Romans as well (Rom, in turkish and so forth). Greek had been de facto language of the eastern part of the Roman empire during its whole existence so it's not suprising that use of latin lessened in administrative tasks during the centuries as the western parts of the empire were lost. This ofcourse gave good fuel to papal propaganda of "Greek empire".

It wasn't the barbarians, but the Crusaders who by sacking Constantinople during the 4th Crusade, dealt the Roman Empire the blow from which it never recovered. Constantinople finally fell to Turks in 1453.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade

When it comes to Greek civilization and culture, it's still alive and kicking. So don't call it dead yet.

this is important!

[martas]

It'll come in handy when we try to use the stargate...

... and Celestia

[Anonymous Coward]

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'll have to update my telescope's GoTo system

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

RS232 support should still be around even if humanity goes extinct.

All the constellations will look the same by then

[Liquidrage]

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.

Betelguese

[mister_playboy]

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.

Carl Sagan did it fist

[zoom-ping]

From 3:10