How do constellations move? Will the shape of the constellation change?

One night, you happened to see a very shining star, so you imagined it as a diamond. But after a while, when you look up at the same position in the starry sky again, you find that this diamond suddenly disappears. What the hell is going on here?

It turns out that the shining stars will disappear because the starry sky we see every day is different. The starry sky changes every day, and the constellations naturally change with it. But how do constellations move? As we all know, constellations are made up of stars. Because the stars are too far away from us, it is difficult to find the changes of their positions in the sky without special tools and methods, so we regard them as stars that will not "move".

Then who the hell is moving? Yes, it is the earth. Mother Earth, who lives for human beings, is spinning around the sun every day. Because the earth rotates, the starry sky background rotates once a day around the central axis of the celestial sphere; Because the earth is in a different position in the orbit of revolution every day, the starry sky changes slowly with the change of seasons. Earth period of revolution is a year. A year later, the earth returned to the same position in the orbit a year ago, and the starry sky was almost the same as a year ago. It's as if we walked around the runway of the stadium, and when we returned to the original point, we saw the door that just came in. If the influence of precession is ignored, the movement cycle of the constellation is one year, and different starry sky pictures will be seen in each season of the year. So when you look at the constellations, you should seize the opportunity, or you may have to wait a year later.

Will the constellations change in billions of years? Constellation is composed of connecting lines between stars, so as long as the position of the stars changes, the shape of the constellation will also change. And we know that stars are actually moving, just because they are too far away from us, so their movement is not easy to be detected. But even the smallest change will lead to qualitative change one day. Because the movement of stars is too slow, it is impossible to observe the changing track of constellations by the strength of one generation alone. Even the general situation of Ursa major in the constellation described by the ancients two thousand years ago, we can't seem to see any difference between it and now. However, the history of mankind is not only two thousand years.

According to the findings of archaeologists, the depiction of Ursa Major left by Neanderthals 654.38 million years ago is very different from that of Ursa Major now. 65,438+million years ago, the distance between Shu Tian and Tian Xuan, who formed the spoon edge of the Big Dipper Ursa major, was much farther than now, and the shape of the Big Dipper was different from now, so the shape of the constellation will still change.

Although it is difficult for people to observe the movement of stars in their lifetime because of the distance, with the passage of time, human beings have left or will leave countless records and documents of the starry sky, which makes the changes of constellations appear.