Celestial Objects
Polaris
Cepheid Variable Star
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Polaris, the North Star, is a yellow supergiant roughly 447 light-years away that lies nearly in line with Earth's rotational axis, so it appears almost motionless in the sky and has long served navigators; it is also a classical Cepheid variable, a type of pulsating star important for measuring cosmic distances.
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1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia Foundationen.wikipedia.org, Polaris, lead sectionQuote, en.wikipedia.org, Polaris, lead section
Because Polaris lies nearly in a direct line with the Earth's rotational axis above the North Pole, it stands almost motionless in the sky.
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