Eltanin
is the 47th star in the Nautical Almanac. It's name means "serpent
god" in ancient Hebrew, for it is the brightest star in the
constellation of Draco The Dragon, despite having the designation of
Gamma Draconis.
Eltanin was worshiped as a god by the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians to whom it seemed the zenith star in the skies over their lands. Several temples in both lands were oriented toward Eltanin. Precession has caused it to move, and now it is the zenith star of the City of London, achieving that position every midnight on the dot. Thousands of years ago it was the South Pole Star; thousands of years hence it will be the North Pole Star. It has been called "The Queen of The Poles."
As a result, Eltanin has been studied since antiquity. Studying Eltanin proved that the fixed stars do indeed shift, thus proving that the Earth goes around the Sun. Currently, Eltanin is 155 light years from Earth. It has been determined that in about one million years Eltanin will be only 28 light years away from Earth. At that time it will supplant Sirius as the brightest star in our night sky.
Eltanin is a Second Magnitude star. It is a giant orange star that has left its Main Sequence and is burning helium. Its age is uncertain, but it is past its stellar prime. It has a mass about 1.75 times that of the Sun, and a radius of about 50 times that of the Sun. It is 471 times as bright as the Sun, and burns at 6500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Eltanin makes a visual pair with the star Rastaban, 200 light years more distant, and together they form the Eyes of the Dragon.
In 1981, a U.S. Navy research ship, the U.S.S. Eltanin, discovered evidence of a major meteor impact on the Earth which occurred 2.5 million years ago in the South Pacific Ocean. The Eltanin Meteor was as much as two miles wide, and left an impact crater 22 miles across. The original tsunami from the impact is estimated to have been 700 feet high along the coast of South America, and as much as 200 feet high in more distant places. The Eltanin Impact caused an Ice Age on the Earth, ending the Pliocene Age and beginning the Pleistocene, but the planet suffered no sudden mass extinction event.
Eltanin was worshiped as a god by the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians to whom it seemed the zenith star in the skies over their lands. Several temples in both lands were oriented toward Eltanin. Precession has caused it to move, and now it is the zenith star of the City of London, achieving that position every midnight on the dot. Thousands of years ago it was the South Pole Star; thousands of years hence it will be the North Pole Star. It has been called "The Queen of The Poles."
As a result, Eltanin has been studied since antiquity. Studying Eltanin proved that the fixed stars do indeed shift, thus proving that the Earth goes around the Sun. Currently, Eltanin is 155 light years from Earth. It has been determined that in about one million years Eltanin will be only 28 light years away from Earth. At that time it will supplant Sirius as the brightest star in our night sky.
Eltanin is a Second Magnitude star. It is a giant orange star that has left its Main Sequence and is burning helium. Its age is uncertain, but it is past its stellar prime. It has a mass about 1.75 times that of the Sun, and a radius of about 50 times that of the Sun. It is 471 times as bright as the Sun, and burns at 6500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Eltanin makes a visual pair with the star Rastaban, 200 light years more distant, and together they form the Eyes of the Dragon.
In 1981, a U.S. Navy research ship, the U.S.S. Eltanin, discovered evidence of a major meteor impact on the Earth which occurred 2.5 million years ago in the South Pacific Ocean. The Eltanin Meteor was as much as two miles wide, and left an impact crater 22 miles across. The original tsunami from the impact is estimated to have been 700 feet high along the coast of South America, and as much as 200 feet high in more distant places. The Eltanin Impact caused an Ice Age on the Earth, ending the Pliocene Age and beginning the Pleistocene, but the planet suffered no sudden mass extinction event.
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