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Sirius and Arcturus, two very fast stars

Both stars have a relevant proper motion, due to their proximity to the Earth (Sirius 8 ly, Arcturus 37 ly), in such a way as to overturn the shape of the constellations to which they belong in just 30 thousand years. Let’s see what happens from 13000 BCE to 16000 CE.

6 thoughts on “Sirius and Arcturus, two very fast stars”

  1. Hi

    It is interesting to me that although Arcturus is more than four times farther away from us than Sirius, it has moved about 18.5° in the sky in that time of about 30,000 years. Whereas Sirius only moves “only” about 11°. To me, this means that in the distant past, Arcturus must have been so far away from us that it could not be seen by the eye, and the same is true in the future when it is so far away from us that it is no longer visible. So I think that Arcturus is just passing by us and not part of our neighboring stars.

    Regards

    1. Thanks BERCU, just added to the External Link Page.

      Also added this interesting article:
      New constraints on ΔT prior the second century AD – (Guillermo Gonzales 2018)

      ABSTRACT
      Ancient lunar appulse and occultation observations are analysed to derive new constraints on the difference between Terrestrial Time and Universal Time (ΔT). The new estimates are combined with literature values to produce an updated equation for calculating ΔT prior to the second century AD.

  2. Con la versione 1.0.78 sembra tutto ok. Il moto proprio di Sirio e Arturo, già noto in epoche più recenti di quelle qui descritte, sarà di aiuto per ulteriori ricerche di archeoastronomia. Grazie
    Saluti

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