How Fast Can You Figure This One Out?
Comments(17)
UPDATE: SOLVED!!
Are you ready to pull your brain out of tryptophan-saturated cruise control? Come on… wake up and let’s play! You can slump back down into turkey-induced euphoria in a minute. Meanwhile, you’re due for a brain-teaser (just a small one) to round out your week. Remember, this is something you’ve known about since childhood, so grab the coffee… here are the clues:
Although thought of as one “thing”, it is actually a group.
This has been used for navigation since antiquity.
It is found referenced on the earliest known Assyrian tablets.
Considered to be a classic example of its “type”, it’s also the closest of its type to the Earth.
Generally well known since antiquity, this has surprisingly few references in popular literature outside the obligatory mention in the world of DC Comics and that of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Research suggests that this is 2.5 times “brighter” today than it was in antiquity.
Image: Ulfbastel – some rights reserved
You got it now, right? The winner gets to pick the subject of my next post, as usual, and you know the parameters. Okay! Give it your best shot!
The Pleiedes?
Al am guessing The Centauri system (more commonly known just as Alpha Centauri)
Nope, but good guesses…
Polaris
Bingo! Patricia got it!
Well done, Patricia! What would you like for me to write about in my next post?
Patricia?? Where did you go?
Hmmm…
The make-up of the legendary, Biblical “Star of Bethlehem” would be timely.
Hmmm, very, very interesting, Patricia. You got it; a scientific look at the Star of Bethlehem. Just for you (and me, this is gonna’ be fun to research and write about!).
I look forward to it. I believe it will surprise younger ‘skywatchers’.
It was the “closest of it’s type” clue that threw me. I am assuming that it is the closest of it’s class of star?
It’s a Class I Cephied Variable and part of a multiple (2 companions) star system.
Roger – Yes, Polaris is a Population I Cepheid Variable… the closest of its type to Earth.
I actually though more people would be thrown by it being a “group” of things, but nobody seems to have been particularly side-tracked by Polaris being part of a ternary system.
i wonder if sirus would be the star of Bethlehem??
Well, Paul, I should have the post ready for Monday… so be sure and read over it!
In other words… I’M NOT SAYING!!
Actually my Pastor did a sermon on the star of Bethlehem and I was suprised about it even though the story I heard a child was similar but different,
Trudy
It’s highly doubtful, to the point of being unimaginable, in a time when stars were used for navigation, planting, and portents of all sorts that the Dog Star would be mistaken for other than what it is.
Perhaps it was a conjunction, comet, or ?