{"id":101907,"date":"2024-07-25T15:39:46","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/25\/the-north-star-is-much-heavier-than-previously-thought\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T15:39:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:39:46","slug":"the-north-star-is-much-heavier-than-previously-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/25\/the-north-star-is-much-heavier-than-previously-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"The North Star is much heavier than previously thought"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The star marking true north is a good deal heavier than we thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North Star is 5.1 times as massive as the sun<\/a>, astronomers report in work submitted July 12 to arXiv.org. That value, calculated from the motion of a much fainter star that orbits the luminary, is nearly 50 percent heavier than a recent estimate of 3.45 solar masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mass profoundly affects stellar life: The more mass a star has, the faster it burns its fuel and the sooner it dies. The earlier mass estimate had suggested that the North Star, also known as Polaris<\/a>, is roughly 100 million years old (SN\/12\/2\/16<\/em>). The new estimate means the star formed more recently than this, but no one has yet calculated a revised age.<\/p>\n\n\n