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North Star May Be Wasting Away

Posted by Soulskill on from the julius-caesar-wanted-to-go-on-a-diet dept.

sciencehabit writes "The North Star, a celestial beacon to navigators for centuries, may be slowly shrinking, according to a new analysis of more than 160 years of observations. The data suggest that the familiar fixture in the northern sky is shedding an Earth's mass worth of gas each year."

3 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh my god! by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Polaris must be losing nearly the equivalent of Earth's mass—or a little under a millionth of its own mass—each year,

    In a little over a million years, we won't be able to use that particular star to navigate any more. IT'LL BE CHAOS!

    It's more likely to collapse and blow off gas in a nebula before then, but agree, it's very hard to use nebulas as navigational aids during the daylight hours and tricky enough at night.

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  2. Re:Cough. Earth's Mass?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It goes to credibility, your honour. FFS, he presents facts and you jump on him whilst idiot anons get +whatever insightful/informative.

    Go suck on a lemon, will ya?

  3. Re:What does it mean for Christians? by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't know what mythos you are referring to, but I doubt it will affect anyone outside your sect.

    Besides, Catholics don't speak for all Christianity, and their mythos is radically different from anyone elses. Most denominations that I know don't teach that the north star has any added significance.

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