Stars

[mrgrumpy1011]

What is the closest star we can see with the naked eye, and how far away is it.....also does any one have any 3d space software like google earth but on a larger scale such as the milky way or the universe even? thanks

[simsfreq]

...the sun...

[Buenchico]

Before someone else points it out, I suppose that I should state that the closest star we can see with the naked eye is, of course, the sun.

Having got that out of the way, the answer you actually require is Proxima Centauri. If you could travel at the spped of light it would only take you 4.3 years to get there.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960526.html

There are plenty of software programs which claim to be able to display the night sky, or the solar system or other small parts of the universe but no software could ever really depict the whole universe.

The usual analogy given about the size of the universe is to consider the number of grains of sand on earth. That's every desert, every beach, the ocean floors and anywhere else that sand occurs. Take the total number of grains and multiply it by 10. The resulting massive figure is approaching (but doesn't reach) the minimum number of stars which we know must be present in the universe. (Some astronomers suggest that the actual number of stars may be many millions of times as big as this). Now imagine some poor software developer trying to enter the coordinates of every star into his software! You should then be able to see why it's extremely unlikely that we'll ever have any software which can map the whole of the universe.

Chris

[Buenchico]

Not for the first time, simsfreq was posting while I was typing!

[mrgrumpy1011]

bums sorry i mean

most distance star !!!!!!!!!!!!!

pls answer that

[mrgrumpy1011]

i mean most distant star.....bummer pls answer

[KebabMeister]

Skymap is a good software program and you can download older evaluation copies that don't expire (due to not 100% functionality but more than good enough for the casual user)

[Buenchico]

A quick bit of searching suggests that most astronomers agree that Deneb (in Cygnus) is the answer you require.

See this Word document:
http://www.neatherd.org/astronomy/northandsouth/planetar ium_presentation.doc

Chris

[ll_billym]

By far the best 3D space software I have come across is Celesita:

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

It is 100% free but you will need a reasonable graphics card to get the best out of it. As for mapping the entire universe in 3D, I'm working on it and hope to have it done by suppertime. :-)

[jake-the-peg]

Galaxies are comprised of billions of stars but as they get further away we quickly loose the ability to see individual stars.

The most distant objects are quasars and the most distant are about 13 billion light years away.

Here's a little news story from a couple of years ago about a new record holder:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2646301.stm