This video shows the motion of the star Adhara from the constellation Canis Major in the earth’s sky over the past 6 million years. Throughout the video, it is in the center of the screen.
Adhara is interesting because 4.4 million years ago it came closer to the Sun. It passed at a distance of about 27 light-years from us. This is far from the closest approach. For example, Vega is now about the same distance from us, and Sirius is 3 times closer. But Adhara is a bright blue giant and shines like 20 thousand suns! Therefore, from a distance of 27 light-years, it shone as Venus shines during its period of greatest brightness. No star shines so brightly in the earth’s sky and will not shine for the next 5 million years. Even the star Gliese 710, which in 1 million and 296 thousand years will pass only 0.167 light years from the Sun, will shine several times weaker than Venus.
For the last 3 million years, Adhara has been moving away from the Sun, being in the Canis Major constellation. Currently, it has already moved 430 light-years away, but it is still the second brightest star in this constellation after Sirius.
In the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the star Adhara can be seen very low above the horizon in winter. The conditions for observing it are much better in the tropics and in the Southern Hemisphere.
Modeling and rendering were performed by author of this publication using own software. Information about the stars is taken from the Hipparcos catalogue and corrected by data from the Gaia DR3 catalogue.
The track Messier 45 by Stellardrone sounds in this video. This track was not changed. CC BY 3.0 DEED (Attribution 3.0 Unported) license.
