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ALIEN INTERVIEW - THE NEW EARTH - Earth Changes and The ...

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Alnitak is a double star system. Alnitak A is a blue O9.7Ib supergiant star about 15 times the<br />

diameter of the sun, at least 11,000 times more luminous than the sun.<br />

Thuban is another name for the star is Adib from the Arabic Al Dhi'bah, "<strong>The</strong> Hyenas". A<br />

number of stars in the constellation of Draco. According to Allen, seamen were accustomed<br />

to call Thuban "<strong>The</strong> Dragon's Tail." Thuban is a white A0III giant having a luminosity about<br />

260 times that of the sun. Spectral analysis indicates that Thuban has a companion star<br />

orbiting with a 51.4 day period.<br />

Sirius is also known colloquially as the "Dog Star", reflecting its prominence in its<br />

constellation, Canis Major. It is the subject of more mythological <strong>and</strong> folkloric tales than any<br />

other star apart from the sun. <strong>The</strong> heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in<br />

Ancient Egypt <strong>and</strong> the 'Dog Days' of summer<br />

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky with a visual apparent magnitude of −1.47, almost<br />

twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. What appears as a single star to the<br />

naked eye is actually a binary star system, consisting of Sirius A, <strong>and</strong> a faint white dwarf<br />

companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B.<br />

Sirius is bright due to both its intrinsic luminosity <strong>and</strong> its closeness to the Sun. At a distance<br />

of 2.6 parsecs (8.6 light-years), the Sirius system is one of our near neighbors. Sirius A is<br />

about twice as massive as the Sun <strong>and</strong> has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25<br />

times more luminous than the Sun.<br />

Sirius is recorded in the earliest astronomical records, known in Ancient Egypt as Sopdet<br />

(Greek: Sothis). During the era of the Middle Kingdom, Egyptians based their calendar on<br />

the heliacal rising of Sirius, namely the day it becomes visible just before sunrise after<br />

moving far enough away from the glare of the sun. This occurred just before the annual<br />

flooding of the Nile <strong>and</strong> the summer solstice, after a 70 day absence from the skies. <strong>The</strong><br />

hieroglyph for Sothis features a star <strong>and</strong> a triangle. Sothis was identified with the great<br />

goddess Isis who formed a part of a trinity with her husb<strong>and</strong> Osiris <strong>and</strong> their son Horus,<br />

while the 70 day period symbolized the passing of Isis <strong>and</strong> Osiris though the duat (Egyptian<br />

underworld).<br />

North Star, also known as the Pole Star, is the star that lies closest in the sky to the north<br />

celestial pole, <strong>and</strong> which appears directly overhead to an observer at the <strong>Earth</strong>'s North Pole.<br />

<strong>The</strong> current North Star is Polaris, which lies about two-thirds of a degree from the pole at the<br />

end of the "h<strong>and</strong>le" of the Little Dipper asterism in the constellation Ursa Minor. Polaris has a<br />

visual magnitude of 1.97 (second magnitude). (Some people mistakenly think that Polaris is<br />

the brightest star in the night sky. This title belongs to Sirius, <strong>and</strong> there are many others<br />

stars also brighter than Polaris.)<br />

Due to the precession of the equinoxes the direction of the <strong>Earth</strong>'s axis is very slowly but<br />

continuously changing, <strong>and</strong> as the projection of the <strong>Earth</strong>'s axis moves around the celestial<br />

sphere over the millennia, the role of North Star passes from one star to another. Since the<br />

precession of the equinoxes is so slow, a single star typically holds that title for many<br />

centuries.<br />

In 3000 BC the faint star Thuban in the constellation Draco was the North Star. At<br />

magnitude 3.67 (fourth magnitude) it is only one-fifth as bright as Polaris, the current North<br />

Star (situated 430 light-years away).<br />

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