The main star of the system is Ursa Minor Aa which is a Cepheid Variable. Its apparent magnitude averages at 1.98
No, Rigel is not the closest star to Polaris (the North Star). Rigel is a bright star in the constellation Orion, while Polaris is located in the constellation Ursa Minor. The closest star to Polaris is Urodelus, also known as "Polaris Australis."
There is no particularly bright star near the south pole of the sky. A nearby star is Sigma Octans, but it is not as bright a star as Polaris (the North Star).
North star, or Polaris, is the name of a bright star that is CURRENTLY near the celestial north pole. Since the position of the north pole will change in the future, Polaris will still be called Polaris, but it will no longer be the north star.
Polaris is not a white dwarf. If it was you wouldn't be able to see it. Polaris is in fact a multiple star system, that just looks like one star. The brightest star is a bright giant with a spectral type of F7 - so it will appear as a yellow-white star.
Polaris, the North Star, is located near the North Celestial Pole which is visible only from the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, there is no bright star close to the South Celestial Pole like Polaris because the South Celestial Pole does not have a similarly positioned bright star. Therefore, observers in the Southern Hemisphere cannot see Polaris due to its location in the sky.
I think the answer is in the question. North Star!! It's a star called Polaris
The North Star currently refers to Polaris, an F7 Supergiant approximately 433 light years from Earth.
Polaris, also known as the North Star, is the only star in the Little Dipper that is relatively bright and easily visible. It is located at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper constellation.
That refers to its actual brightness, not to how we see it. The apparent brightness depends on the real ("absolute") brightness, but also on the distance.
How bright a star appears depends on how bright it is and how far away it is. While, on the whole Polaris is a very bright star it is also very far away, at least 350 light years, which makes it appear dimmer. The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, one of the closest stars to Earth at only 8.6 light years. The brightest star overall, as viewed from Earth, is the sun, which is a quarter of a million times closer to us than the next nearest star.
Polaris is in fact a multiple star system, consisting of three main stars and two companions. The main star Polaris A (α UMi A) is a six solar mass bright giant with a spectral class of F7, meaning it has a colour of yellow -> yellow white. It has a radius about 30 times that of our own Sun and has a temperature of about 7,200. Polaris is about 430 light years from us. See related link for more information
No. In fact, Polaris is the dimmest of the 57 stars commonly used for celestial navigation. Except for the happy coincidence that Polaris perches almost precisely above the Earth's north pole, nobody would think anything about it. In fact, we're fortunate that the skies around the north pole are bereft of bright stars. Polaris is relatively easy to find only because there are NO bright stars in that part of the sky.