Light seen from the North Star was emitted in 1583

The North Star

North star light emitted

The North Star is one of the most famous stars, technically named Polaris. It is 430 lightyears away and said to have first appeared in 1583. By lightyears, we mean that it takes 430 years for the light from Polaris to reach Earth. For a star, that is really close. Take into consideration that the Milky way, our galaxy, 100,000 lightyears across and the next closest galaxy is 2,200,000 lightyears away.

From Earth stars look like fixed points in the sky due to their distance. The closes star is of course the Sun, which is extremely crucial to the cycles of life on Earth. Not just for plants and animals, either. Studies show that people living in countries that don't receive much sunlight, like Finland, England, or Alaska, have higher suicide rates than all other countries.

Anyways, stars tend to be grouped into constellations and we know them as the Little Dipper, Orions Belt, and more. The brightest stars get their own names, though. The bigger the star is, the shorter it's lifespan. A large star will only last a few million years, while a small star will last tens to hundreds of billions of years because it burns it's fuel ever so slowly.

Visit for : (Source)