I came here to question whether that claim is true, saw your post, and thought something like “well, that settles that.” Then I scrolled down and saw neatchee’s (great username) post and now my whole world is uncertain.
Polaris goes in and out of North Star status on the 26,000 year precession cycle. So for the duration of humanity (let’s say 100,000 years), there have been decent chunks of time where it’s not in use.
Polaris is 45-67 million years old.
It’s not even close.
I came here to question whether that claim is true, saw your post, and thought something like “well, that settles that.” Then I scrolled down and saw neatchee’s (great username) post and now my whole world is uncertain.
Dinosaurs died off 65 MYA. Dinosaurs were most likely gone before Polaris formed.
They probably died off because they couldn’t use Polaris for navigation!
Polaris goes in and out of North Star status on the 26,000 year precession cycle. So for the duration of humanity (let’s say 100,000 years), there have been decent chunks of time where it’s not in use.
You gotta rest up man, that’s a pretty big job for one star
Can you imagine having to give directions to a bunch of illiterate primates? Ugg. I’d have quite after the first thousand years.
They trade off. There are other stars that make for good pole star candidates
I’m now sad that dinosaurs could never look up and see Polaris.
Eh, they got to see the thousands of other stars that are now obscured by light/atmospheric pollution.
Appalachian mountains are even older