Ep. 156: Famous Stars

VY Canis Majoris

This week we're going to talk about famous stars. But not those boring human ones you read about in People magazine. No, we're talking about those hot balls of plasma across the distant Universe. The close ones, the bright ones, the massive ones, the giant ones. Let's get to know some famous stars.

Ep. 156: Famous Stars

• MOST FAMOUS: Polaris — UIUC
• How to find Polaris — GSFC
• Misconceptions about the North Star ("Constant as the North Star" — Shakespeare)
• Cepheid Variable stars
• MOST POWERFUL:  Eta Carinae — APOD
• Hypernova — Wiki
• BRIGHTEST (But not most luminous): Sirius
• Binary Stars
• BIGGEST: VY Canis Majoris
• Red Supergiants — GSU
• Video:  Biggest Stars in the Universe
• SMALLEST:  Ogle TR-122b — Universe Today
• Red Dwarf Stars
• SMALLEST STAR THAT IS NOT A RED DWARF:  White Dwarf Stars
• CLOSEST:  Proxima Centauri – AAO
• Alpha Centauri System — APOD
• MOST LIKELY TO EXPLODE: Betelgeuse and Eta Carinae
• Helix Nebula – HubbleSite
• Crab Nebula
• 2012 Stupidity — Universe Today
• FASTEST MOVING: RX J0822-4300 — Chandra
• Neutron Stars
• FIRST STAR FOUND TO HAVE A PLANET:  51 Pegasus
• Extra Solar Planets — Planet Quest
• FIRST STAR TO FOUND TO HAVE PLANETARY SYSTEM: PSR B1257+12
• Pulsar
• OTHER FAMOUS STARS FROM SCIENCE FICTION:
• Wolf 359
• The Battle of Wolf 359 on Star Trek (Resistance is futile; You will be assimilated)
• Epsilon Eridani
• a.k.a. Vulcan
• McDonald Observatory

1. gary Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 8:03 am

   Don't forget Wolf 359 was on the original Outer Limits in 1964. They depicted it as having a solar system too.

   Love the show, thanks.

2. Anders Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 8:56 am

   The most famous star is probably the sun…

3. Jim Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

   With the star that you mentioned that was 'passing through' the galaxy at high speed, this reminds me of a discussion on "hypervelocity stars" in another podcast interview with a Dr Church from Cambridge Uni – very interesting stuff. Who knew there was still so much to learn about stars?

4. Jim Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

   oops forgot the link

   http://tinyurl.com/yhxw57a

5. Mark Says:
   October 14th, 2009 at 11:57 am

   Rigel was also mentioned in Star Trek on a number of occasions. This was one of my favorite episodes to date, but enjoy them all. Keep them coming!!

6. Jef Says:
   October 14th, 2009 at 5:34 pm

   Umm, I cant find any shownotes or transcripts from the famous stars episode? I was particularly after the link Pamela mentioned to the video of a flythrough showing the scales of star sizes.

7. Stuart Wheaton Says:
   October 14th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

   156 episodes… seems that unless I suck more at math than I think I do, that is 3 whole years!!!

   Congrats to Pamela and Frasier!

8. BigFriendlyDave Says:
   October 15th, 2009 at 11:54 am

   Fun show –
   Here's one video showing the scales – great music aside!
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&feature=related

9. Paul3000 Says:
   October 20th, 2009 at 6:05 am

   VY Canis Majoris is the biggest star we can see. Can stars be bigger than even this behemoth!

10. Alice Says:
    October 21st, 2009 at 9:32 am

    Oh man, I hate to be the huge canon nerd here, but I have to ask for a correction.

    Epsilon Eridani is not the home star system of the Vulcans in "Star Trek" canon. 40 Eridani A is. But it's still a cool star system! Seriously!

11. Ahmed Says:
    October 22nd, 2009 at 8:48 am

    I thought there was some repetition in this episode, or not? Like a technical problem or something. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. Thanks a lot, Fraser and Pamela!

12. Margaret Says:
    October 25th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    This was a very enjoyable episode. I am recommending it to friends. Thank you for helping me to better understand astronomy through these 156 episodes and questions shows. Please keep them coming!

13. Zach Kessin Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 7:55 am

    I think Epsilon Eridani was the home of Babylon 5

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