It would seem, to determine which star is the brightest, it is easy, it is enough to look at the sky.But not all so simple.Determine which of the brightest stars actually hinder and vast distances, and interstellar dust, and measurement error.Even the stars change their brightness with time.But still ... Consider the most likely contenders for the glorious title called "The brightest star."
At the end of the last century with a telescope "Hubble" managed to find a star, dubbed "Star of the gun."Pistol is the nebula, which was formed as a result of ejection of matter from the interior of the star.According to the calculations of astrophysicists, the brightest star shines ten million times brighter than the Sun but from Earth armed glance is not visible, because, firstly, is located too far away from us, and secondly, its luminosity is hidden "gun".However, a few years later with the rank of star lowered the brightness, and now it is considered that it is "only" 1.7 million times brighter than the sun.Although it is possible that follow the new specification.
Another contender for the title is the star of this constellation Carina, located 8,000 light-years from Earth.A star with luminosity changes over time, it is able to detect, studying the works of ancient astronomical observatories.Eta Carinae in the same way as a star in the "gun", is surrounded by a nebula of its own production, dubbed the Homunculus.It is brighter than the Sun 5 million times.
Another contender - the star of the constellation Sagittarius, known only as number - LBV 1806-20.It is brighter than the sun in the 5-40 million times better define so far failed.
As we can see, to find out which of the other astronomical objects more worthy of the title "The brightest star," is impossible.Each of the three most likely candidates studied enough to be considered the most-most ... The question is, what is the brightest star in the universe remains open.
Now back of stellar distances and see which one is visible from the Earth is the brightest star.The first astronomer to classify stars by apparent brightness, was a Greek Hipparchus, who lived two centuries before Christ.He first introduced the term 'magnitude'.After eighteen hundred thousand years, the German astronomer Bayer decided to designate the brightness of the stars of the letters of the Greek alphabet.
With the help of modern instruments and methods of research it is easy to determine the apparent brightness of the star.The brightest star in the sky of the Earth - is Deneb in the constellation Cygnus.Second place goes to Rigel in the constellation Orion, and the third - Betelgeuse, which is also located in the constellation of Orion.
Chinese astronomers from observations we know that in 1054 appeared in the sky as a bright star that it could be seen even in the daytime.Perhaps it was the brightest star of all time!But very quickly it was gone, and in its place came the famous Crab Nebula.As established astronomers, it was a supernova explosion, which resulted in on-site neutron stars formed a pulsar, is the most powerful in our galaxy.The diameter of the pulsar at the microscopic space standards - no more than thirty kilometers.
