Will the north star burn out?

Answer 1

All stars will burn out eventually. Polaris is about 430 LY away from us, and is a multiple star; there are several stars huddled together to form what we observe as one star. One component is a supergiant, and there is one main sequence star, and one dwarf. There are a couple of other small companion stars in the group. So the death of Polaris is likely to be a rather long and drawn out affair. It won't be fading from the sky any time soon.

Answer 2

No. The fact that Polaris, the "north star", sits almost directly above the North Pole is a happy coincidence. 3000 years ago, it wasn't, and in another 3000 years it won't be.

Because of the precession of the Earth's rotation, the axis of the Earth "wobbles" with a period of about 26,000 years. In 13,000 years from now, the bright star Vega will be pretty close to being the "north star"; not that Vega will move, but the Earth will have wobbled around to it!

Answer 3

Yes, the North Star, also known as Polaris, will eventually burn out like all other stars. However, this will not likely happen for millions of years as Polaris is a relatively young star in its lifespan.

Answer 4

No. Polaris is actually three stars, the most massive of which is about 4.5 times the mass of our sun, about half the mass needed to go supernova.

Answer 5

It may well expolde in billions of years time, but by then Polaris, will no longer be the North Star.