Ten things you never knew about stars
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007I found this in a newspaper I was reading the other day. Credit goes to William Hartston for writing it.
The energy company npower is reported to have attatched its name to 328 stars to become the first brand to spell out its name in a constellation.
1) Anyone can buy a star. The International Star Registry will register a star under your name for only £49.95. (Details from www.starregistry.co.uk)
2) With approximately the same number of stars in the sky as grains of sand on Earth’s beaches, there are easily enough to go around.
3) When Dom Perigon invented champagne in 1693, he supposedly called his fellow monks by urging them, ‘Come quickly, brothers, I am tasting the stars’.
4) The nursery rhyme Twinkle twinkle little star was written by Jane Taylor in 1806 and called The Star.
5) US President Dwight Eisenhower had two pairs of pyjamas bearing the five stars of an army general.
6) The nearest star to Earth (apart from the Sun) is Proxima centauri.
7) Despite being the nearest star, its light still takes 4.3 years to reach us.
8) It is estimated that 80 per cent of the stars in the universe are red dwarfs - less than half the size of the sun and much cooler.
9) The 328 npower stars are all in the constellation of Hercules.
10) The Greek astronomer Ptolemy divided the stars into 48 constellations. There are now 88 recognised.
