Procyon II
Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, may contain hundreds of billions of stars. Yet each star is a little different from every other. Stars come in different sizes, ages, and temperatures. And each has a slightly different chemical makeup.
By studying many different stars, astronomers gain a better understanding of how ALL stars work. And they learn something about the history of the entire Milky Way.
The best target stars are those that are especially big, hot, or close by. Astronomers can gather more light from these stars, so they learn more about them.
One example is Procyon A, in Canis Minor, the little dog. It's just 11 light-years away. It's twice as big as the Sun, a good bit hotter, and about seven times as bright. All of this makes Procyon a good target for astronomers who want to get thorough information about a star other than the Sun.
Astronomers have found that Procyon's chemistry is similar to that of the Sun and most other stars in our region of the galaxy, although it contains a little less iron and a few other heavy elements. And even though astronomers can't see details on the surface of Procyon A, they can deduce that it probably looks a lot like the Sun, with bubbles of hot gas rising from deep inside the star. These bubbles are a bit bigger than those on the Sun -- big enough to swallow Earth.
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2003
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