Fact Sheet
Pole Stars Past, Present, and Future
Today, Polaris is the North Star or the “pole star.” All the stars in the northern hemisphere sky appear to rotate around it. But thousands of years ago, during the reign of the pharaohs, there was a different pole star: Thuban, in the constellation Draco, the dragon. That’s because the direction of north in the sky changes as Earth’s axis wobbles in a 26,000-year cycle. This causes the pole to aim at different stars over time, a process called precession. You can spot the pole star of the future, Vega, shining brightly high in the western sky on November nights. But it will be more than 10,000 years before Vega’s reign begins.
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