The most widely accepted theory is that the star was named after the pilot of a ship which Menelaus, the king of Mycenean pre-Dorian Sparta, sailed to retrieve his wife Helen of Troy after she was kidnapped by Paris. When they arrived, Canopus was bitten by a snake and quickly died. Menelaus wanted to honor him and named a port there after him. When he was giving his dedicatory speech, a bright star rose in the sky and Menelaus decided to name this star after Canopus as well.
Canopus formed millions of years ago from molecular clouds in the vicinity of the Scorpius-Centaurus association. Its exact age is unknown. Gravity pulled swirling gas and dust together and thus formed the second-brightest star in the night sky that we now call Canopus — Alpha Carinae. It is quite possible that this star is relatively young.
It is a gigantic star with a diameter of around Though Canopus is more than Canopus is actually the most intrinsically bright star within light-years away from the solar system.
Its average surface temperature is at around 7. It is thought that because of this, Canopus is a strong source of X-rays. Canopus is traveling through our galaxy — the Milky Way — at a speed of around Canopus is located in the constellation of Carina, marking the western edge of the constellation. Canopus is yellowish-white giant star 65 times the size of our sun, and located light-years away in the constellation Carina.
Canopus is a member of the Scorpius-Centaurus Association, which is the closest group of hot, massive OB class stars that share a common origin and proper motion. Other members of this association include Antares , and many other bright stars in the constellations of Scorpius, Centaurus, Crux, and Lupus.
Canopus was pilot of the ship that took King Menelaus to Troy in order to retrieve his wife Helen from the handsome young prince, Paris. In ancient Mesopotamia, the star was called NUN-ki.
It symbolised the ancient city of Eridu in Babylonian star catalogues and in the astronomical compendium MUL. APIN c. Today, the name Nunki belongs to Sigma Sagittarii , the second brightest star in the constellation Sagittarius.
The name was mentioned in the Shiji Records of the Grand Historian , a history of ancient China and one of the foundational texts of the Chinese civilization, finished by the Chinese historian Sima Qian around the year 94 BCE.
In India, Canopus is known as Agastya. The major axis of the Kaaba, a building at the centre of the Great Mosque of Mecca, is aligned with the rising of the star and its southeast wall is directed toward Canopus.
The Negev Bedouin of Israel called the star Suhayl. Canopus and Polaris were the most important stars the Bedouin used in navigation. The Guanche people of the island of Tenerife associated Canopus with Chaxiraxi, the Sun Mother and one of the principal deities in the Guanche pantheon. Canopus was the male horn and Capella the female one. The appearance of the two stars and the cluster in the sky signalled the beginning of the rainy season.
The Sotho people of southern Africa know Canopus as Naka, the Horn Star, and traditionally keep watch for it in late May, awarding a cow for the earliest sighting. The Tswana people would watch for Canopus and start breeding their sheep when the star appeared in the sky before sunrise.
The Venda people call the star Nanga, also meaning the Horn Star, and its first sighting in the morning sky is also awarded with a cow. Canopus and Sirius announced the appearance of flying ants and termites. The Bushmen prayed to the two stars, believing that they could bring misfortune.
The Xhosa-speaking people called Canopus U-Canzi-be and associated it with harvest. The star was also sometimes known as So dondizidi the No-Month Star. The appearance of the hands on the southwestern horizon signalled the coming of the rainy season and an abundance of manioc, a local food staple. Ancient Polynesians also used Canopus and other bright stars to navigate between the islands of the Pacific.
Canopus was part of a Great Bird constellation, known as Manu, which divided the sky into two hemispheres. In Australia, Canopus had a prominent role in several indigenous cultures. The Boorong people of northwest Victoria called the star War. War, a male crow, was the husband of Collowgullouric War, a female crow, likely represented by Eta Carinae, and brother of Warepil, an eagle, represented by Sirius. In local lore, War was a Prometheus-like figure who brought fire to humankind. The Koori people of southeast Australia also associated Canopus with a crow.
The star represented Waa, one of the moiety ancestors. The crow is often a trickster and an ancestral figure in Australian Aboriginal mythology. The other ancestral being is Bunjil, the eaglehawk, represented by Altair in Aquila. After being rejected by them, Waa turned himself into a grub after hearing that the women were foraging for grubs and, when one of them dug him out, he transformed into a giant and carried her off. Moinee is an ancestral figure who created the first human being. After the fight, Dromerdene is said to have fallen into Louisa Bay and Moinee fell to earth.
A large standing stone behind Cox Bight beach in southwest Tasmania is said to be his petrified form. They believed that its light rays foretold the coming winter and whether it would be mild or cold and wet. Like other exceptionally bright stars, Canopus has often been used or referenced in works of fiction.
It has also been spelled Canobus, Kanopus and Kanobos. The name formally applies only to the component Alpha Carinae A. The origin of the name is uncertain. Menelaus erected a monument in his honour in the Nile Delta, where the town of Canopus later developed.
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