{"id":146,"date":"2022-11-03T16:07:13","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canopusawards.org\/?page_id=146"},"modified":"2023-02-06T12:10:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T12:10:18","slug":"about-canopus-awards","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/canopusawards.org\/?page_id=146","title":{"rendered":"About Canopus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WHY CANOPUS?<\/h1>\n

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\u201cStorytelling is essential to communicating and concretizing a vision.\u00a0 A story well told\u2014fictional or non-fictional\u2014pushes us to consider how, where, who, and why we advance, stagnate or regress,\u201d said Dr. Jemison, Principal of 100YSS.<\/p>\n

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Significance of the Name<\/h2>\n

The award is named for the second brightest star in the night sky, Canopus, which connects humanity\u2019s past, present, and future through fact and fantasy. Over the millennia Canopus not only heralded planting seasons in the Rift Valley, but was a major navigation star for everyone from the Bedouin of the Sinai and the Maori of New Zealand to deep space probes like Voyager. Just as Canopus has helped explorers find their way for centuries, great writing \u2014telling a story well \u2013\u2013is a guidepost for current and future interstellar achievement.<\/p>\n

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History and Mythology of Canopus<\/h2>\n

Canopus is also called Alpha Carinae, the brightest star in the constellation Carina the Keel. This constellation used to be considered part of Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and his famed Argonauts, as seen in our sky. Canopus originally marked a keel or rudder of this ancient celestial ship. Alas, the great Argo Navis constellation no longer exists. Modern imaginations see it as broken into three parts: the Keel (Carina, of which Canopus is part), sails (Vela) and the poop deck (Puppis).<\/p>\n

For those far enough south to see it, Canopus was a star of great importance from ancient times to modern times as a primary navigational star. This is surely due to its brightness.<\/p>\n

The origin of the name Canopus is subject to question. By some accounts it is the name of a ship\u2019s captain from the Trojan War. Another theory is that it is from ancient Egyptian meaning Golden Earth, a possible reference to the star\u2019s appearance as seen through atmospheric haze near the horizon from Egyptian latitudes.<\/p>\n

(Content excerpted from \u201cWill You See Canopus?\u201d
http:\/\/earthsky.org\/brightest-stars\/few-know-the-second-brightest-star-canopus<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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The Science of Canopus<\/h2>\n

Canopus is about 313 light-years away. Spectroscopically, it is an F0 type star, making it significantly hotter than our sun (roughly 13,600 degrees F at its surface, compared to about 10,000 degrees F for the sun). Canopus also has a luminosity class rating of II, which makes it a \u201cbright giant\u201d star much larger than the sun. (Some classifications make it a type Ia \u201csupergiant\u201d.\u201d)<\/p>\n

If they were placed side by side, it would take about 65 suns to fit across Canopus. Although Canopus appears significantly less bright than Sirius, it is really much brighter, blazing with the brilliance of 14,000 suns! With non-visible forms of light energy factored in, it surpasses the sun by more than 15,000 times.<\/p>\n

Although its exact age is unknown, Canopus\u2019 great mass dictates that this star must be near the end of its lifetime, and is likely is a few million to a few tens of millions of years old. Compared to our sedate middle-aged five-billion year old sun, Canopus has lived in the stellar fast lane and is destined to die young.<\/p>\n

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Canopus in Fiction<\/h2>\n

\u00a0Canopus has not only served a central role for navigators but in the annals of Science Fiction. Chief among its appearances is its position in Frank Herbert\u2019s classic\u00a0<\/span>Dune<\/em>. In the great epic, the space-faring society has become dependent upon a chemical named Spice produced on only one planet in the solar system: Arrakis. The star that Arrakis revolves around is Canopus.<\/p>\n

Canopus appears in multiple other works. Wikipedia\u2019s non-exhaustive list includes:<\/p>\n