Pole star

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/pole-star

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the common name?Pole Star, Polaris
2. What is the scientific name?Alpha Ursae Minoris
3. What is the Pole Star and why does it stay in the same spot?The Pole Star, called Polaris, sits almost right above the North Celestial Pole, so it looks like it doesn't move while the rest of the sky turns.
4. How do people use the Pole Star to find north?By measuring how high Polaris is above the horizon, you can tell which direction is true north, because its height matches your latitude.

North Celestial Pole: The projection of Earth's geographic North Pole onto the celestial sphere, around which stars appear to rotate.
Light-year: The distance light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year, approximately 9.461 trillion kilometers (5.879 trillion miles).
Cepheid Variable: A pulsating star whose period of pulsation is directly related to its luminosity, used as a standard candle for distance measurement.
Axial Precession: The slow, conical wobble of Earth's rotational axis, causing the apparent position of the celestial poles to shift over millennia.