BETA URSAE MINORIS


'Beta Ursae Minoris' (β UMi / β Ursae Minoris) is the second brightest star in the bowl of the "Little Dipper,"
the constellation Ursa Minor. It also has the traditional name 'Kochab'. Kochab's magnitude is 2.1. It is 16 degrees from Polaris. The star is an orange giant and is 110 light years from Earth ''(Citation Needed)''. It is 130 times more luminous than the Sun. Kochab has a surface temperature of approximately 4,000 K.
Kochab and its neighbor Pherkad are both naked-eye stars. They served as twin pole stars, Earth's North pole stars, from 1500 B.C. until 500 A.D. Neither star was as proximitous to the pole as Polaris is now. Due to precession of the equinoxes, the previous holder of the title was Thuban, and the next was the present-day Polaris. This succession of pole stars is a result of earth's precessional motion.
The origin of the name Kochab is indistinct. It has sometimes been associated with a Hebrew word for ''star''. The name "Kochab" may originate from Arabic 'الكوكب' ''al-kawkab'' and means simply "the star".

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Reference



★ Beyer Steven L., ''The Star Guide'', Little, Brown and Company, 1986.
Kochab and mythology www.webspawner.com/users/cosmic/

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