More to the North Star Than Meets the Eye

__roo writes "By stretching the capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to the limit, astronomers have photographed the close companion of Polaris for the first time. This sequence of images shows that the North Star, Polaris is really a triple star system. 'The star we observed is so close to Polaris that we needed every available bit of Hubble's resolution to see it'" said astronomer Nancy Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts."

High Res

[Anonymous Coward]

The star we observed is so close to Polaris that we needed every available bit of Hubble's resolution to see it And everyone says New Year's Resolutions don't work out...

Not Informative

[saskboy]

"sequence of images shows that the North Star, Polaris is really a triple star system."

Damit! OK, so which star do I point my sextant at then if I'm trying to find my latitude? Modern science complicates things so much!

[Yes this is a joke, for those who don't get astronomy humour.]

Looks like the Bard screwed that up...

[Gandalf_the_Beardy]

"I am as constant as the Northern Star." Always though Caesar was a little unstable and went round and round in circles....

ASCII Picture Mirror

[big_groo]

Polaris ---> O
Polaris Ab---->.

Polaris A --------->o

Re:Not Informative

[Red Flayer]

"Damit! OK, so which star do I point my sextant at then if I'm trying to find my latitude? Modern science complicates things so much!"

Modern science? This is, once again, proof that the Bible is truly the word of the Lord, the Intelligent Designer, and all you heretics are condemned to burn in the fires of hell.

You think He did not Design to have the Balthazr, Melchior, and Gaspar (the Three Wise Men) follow three stars?

Bah, karma to burn today... go ahead and mod this to oblivion.

Re:More.

[AviLazar]

When do we get to see the edge of the universe cafe?

When Starbucks agrees to the contract negotiations.

Gah....

[Anonymous Coward]

That's space for ya, nothing for millions of miles, and all of sudden, three stars at once.

Re:Not Informative

[einhverfr]

Call me a luddite but I still use an astrolabe....

Enough of this defeatist attitude!

[QMO]

"We only have the binary stars that nature provided us"

Don't give up so easily. Make some more binary stars, instead of making excuses.

SHEESH, IDIOTS!

Yep.

[game kid]

It's retina-burning, hydrogen-fusing, yellow-white-hot [wikipedia.org] star-on-star-on-star action! ;)

The North Star: More Than Meets The Eye

[LightningBolt!]

The North Star: Robots In Disguise

UP.

[mmell]

^

|

|

|

|

Re:some questions

[Anonymous Coward]

whilst

Please stop using this word.

Re:I doubt this a a triple star system

[iibagod]

Spoken as a true geek. Maybe someday you'll be part of a stable binary pair....but I doubt it.

Mod -1, Missed Obvious Menage a Trois Remark

no wonder I've been getting lost!

[peter303]

I've been following Polaris #3 instead of Polaris #1.

Re:ASCII Picture Mirror

[Fulcrum of Evil]

Do you pronounce that Ab or A flat?

Odd Article Title...

[addictedavi]

"More to the North Star Than Meets the Eye"

Well I'd certainly hope so, it just looks like a small white dot to me...

aha...

[d1rty_d0gg_]

Polaris is really a triple star system

so this why Sun is still excited about PowerPC.

Re:Enough of this defeatist attitude!

[VitaminB52]

Make some more binary stars, instead of making excuses.

Making more binary stars is beyond our technological capabilities, however seeing more binary stars is within the capabilities of 2 gallons beer :)

We're missing the real news here

[Jay L]

astronomers have photographed the close companion of Polaris

Waitaminute. Polaris is GAY?