The 10 Brightest Stars in the Sky

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Stars exist almost exclusively in galaxies. Some travel their galaxies alone, others, like those in
star cluster Trumpler 14, are in clusters. NASA

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byNick Greene
Updated July 03, 2019

The brightest stars in our night sky are an object of constant interest to
stargazers. Some appear very bright to us because they're relatively nearby, while
others look bright because they're massive and very hot, pumping out lots of
radiation. Some look dim because of their age, or because they're far away.
There's no way to tell just by looking at a star what its age is, but we can tell
brightness and use that to learn more.

Stars are massive shining spheres of hot gas that exist in all galaxies across the
universe. They were among the first objects to form in the infant universe, and
they continue to be born in many galaxies, including our Milky Way. The star
closest to us is the Sun.

All stars are made primarily of hydrogen, smaller amounts of helium, and traces
of other elements. The stars we can see with the naked eye in the night sky all
belong to the Milky Way Galaxy, the huge system of stars that contains our solar
system. It contains hundreds of billions of stars, star clusters, and clouds of gas
and dust (called nebulae) where stars are born.

Here are the ten brightest stars in Earth's night sky. These make excellent
stargazing targets from all but the most light-polluted cities.

Sirius

The bright star Sirius. malcolm park / Getty Images

Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name
comes from the Greek word for "scorching." Many early cultures had names for
it, and it had special meanings in terms of rituals and the deities they saw in the
sky.

It's actually a double star system, with a very bright primary and a dimmer
secondary star. Sirius is visible from late August (in the early mornings) until
mid-to-late March) and lies 8.6 light-years away from us. Astronomers classify it
as a type A1Vm star, based on their method of classifying stars by their
temperatures and other characteristics.

Canopus

Canopus, the second-brightest star in the sky, is visible in this view

photographed by astronaut Donald R. Pettit. Courtesy NASA / Johnson Space
Center

Canopus was well known to the ancients and is named either for an ancient city
in northern Egypt or the helmsman for Menelaus, a mythological king of Sparta.
It's the second brightest star in the night sky, and mainly visible from the
Southern Hemisphere. Observers who live in the southern regions of the
Northern Hemisphere can also see it low in their skies during certain parts of the
year.

Canopus lies 74 light-years away from us and forms part of the constellation
Carina. Astronomers classify it as a type F star, which means it's slightly hotter
and more massive than the Sun. It's also a more aged star than our Sun.

Rigel Kentaurus

The closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri is marked with a red circle, close to
the bright stars Alpha Centauri A and B. Courtesy Skatebiker/Wikimedia
Commons.

Rigel Kentaurus, also known as Alpha Centauri, is the third brightest star in the
night sky. Its name literally means "foot of the centaur" and comes from the term
"Rijl al-Qanṭūris" in Arabic. It's one of the most famous stars in the sky, and first-
time travelers to the Southern Hemisphere are often eager to view it.

Rigel Kentaurus is not just one star. It's actually part of a three-star system, with
each star looping around with the others in an intricate dance. It lies 4.3 light-
years away from us and is part of the constellation Centaurus. Astronomers
classify Rigel Kentaurus as a type G2V star, similar to the Sun's classification. It
may be about the same age as our Sun and is in roughly the same evolutionary
period in its life.
Arcturus

Arcturus (lower left) is seen in the constellation Bootes. © Roger

Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG

Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern-hemisphere constellation Boötes.

The name means "Guardian of the Bear" and comes from ancient Greek
legends. Stargazers often learn it as they star-hop from the stars of the Big Dipper
to find other stars in the sky. There's an easy way to remember it: simply use the
curve of the Big Dipper's handle to "arc to Arcturus."
This is the 4th-brightest star in our sky and lies just around 34 light-years away
from the Sun. Astronomers classify it as a type K5 star which, among other
things, means it is slightly cooler and a bit older than the Sun.

Vega

Two images of Vega and its dust disk, as seen by Spitzer Space Telescope.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Vega is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky. Its name means "the swooping
eagle" in Arabic. Vega is about 25 light-years from Earth and is a Type A star,
meaning it is hotter and somewhat younger than the Sun.

Astronomers have found a disk of material around it, which could possibly hold
planets. Stargazers know Vega as part of the constellation Lyra, the Harp. It's also
a point in an asterism (star pattern) called the Summer Triangle, which rides
through the Northern Hemisphere skies from early summer to late autumn.

Capella

Capella, seen in the constellation Auriga. John Sanford/Science Photo

Library/Getty Images

The sixth brightest star in the sky is Capella. Its name means "little she-goat" in
Latin, and it was charted by many ancient cultures, including the Greeks,
Egyptians, and others.

Capella is a yellow giant star, like our own Sun, but much larger. Astronomers
classify it as a type G5 and know that it lies some 41 light-years away from the
Sun. Capella is the brightest star in the constellation Auriga, and is one of the five
bright stars in an asterism called the "Winter Hexagon".

Rigel
 Rigel, seen at the bottom right, in the constellation Orion the Hunter. Luke
Dodd/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

Rigel is an interesting star that has a slightly dimmer companion star that can be
easily seen through telescopes. It lies about 860 light-years away but is so
luminous that it's the seventh-brightest star in our sky.

Rigel's name comes from the Arabic word for "foot" and it is indeed one of the
feet of the constellation Orion, the Hunter. Astronomers classify Rigel as a Type
B8 and have discovered it is part of a four-star system. It, too, is part of the
Winter Hexagon and is visible from October through March each year.

Procyon

Procyon is seen on the left side of Canis Major. Alan Dyer/Stocktrek

Images/Getty Images

Procyon is the eighth brightest star night sky and, at 11.4 light-years, is one of the
closer stars to the Sun. It's classified as a Type F5 star, which means it's slightly
cooler than the Sun. The name "Procyon" is based on the Greek word "prokyon"
for "before the Dog" and indicates that Procyon rises before Sirius (the dog star).
Procyon is a yellow-white star in the constellation Canis Minor and is also part of
the Winter Hexagon. It's visible from most parts of both the northern and
hemispheres and many cultures included it in their legends about the sky.

Achernar

Achernar seen above the Aurora Australis (just to the right of center), as seen
from the International Space Station. NASA/Johnson Space Center

The ninth-brightest star night sky is Achernar. This bluish-white supergiant star
lies about 139 light-years from Earth and is classified a Type B star. Its name
comes from the Arabic term "ākhir an-nahr" which means "End of the River."
This is very appropriate since Achernar is part of the constellation Eridanus, the
river. It's part of the Southern Hemisphere skies, but can be seen from some
parts of the Northern Hemisphere such as the southern United States and
southern Europe and Asia.

Betelgeuse

Red supergiant Betelgeuse at the upper left of Orion. Eckhard Slawik/Science

Photo Library/Getty Images
Betelgeuse is the tenth-brightest star in the sky and makes the upper left
shoulder of Orion, the Hunter. It's a red supergiant classified as a type M1, is
about 13,000 times brighter than our Sun. Betelgeuse lies some 1,500 light-years
away. The name comes from the Arabic term "Yad al-Jauza," which means "arm
of the mighty one". It was translated as "Betelgeuse" by later astronomers.

To get an idea of how large this star is, if Betelgeuse were put at the center of our
Sun, its outer atmosphere would extend past the orbit of Jupiter. It's so large
because it has expanded as it ages. Eventually, it will explode as a supernova
sometime in the next few thousand years.

No one is quite sure exactly when that explosion will occur. Astronomers have a
good idea of what will happen, however. When that star death occurs, Betelgeuse
will temporarily become the brightest object in the night sky. Then, it will slowly
fade out as the explosion expands. There may also be a pulsar left behind,
consisting of a rapidly spinning neutron star.