Could our sun be a part of a constellation?

Not sure about exactly where to post this.

I was reading about the sun and I had this question just pop up in my head.

At night I look at the sky and see stars and constellations. I wonder if there is anyone else out there in the vast Universe that looks to their night sky and sees our sun in one of their constellations?

I think about these kinds of things and just wonder!

Just pondering.

Thats a wonderful thought. Imagine someone looking at our star from their planet. Well, they would be gazing at light from our sun possibly millions of years old, and thus, you, me and everyone else on the planet would be long gone. Heck, even our star could be gone and for all they know, its just a little light steadily twinkling away..

Excellent thought!

Obviously we have no way of knowing this, and of course our constellations wouldnt be the same as another planet's constellations either.

But definitely a thought provoking idea!

reply to post by Beldy


I have wondred this also. Guess it would take some of the cosmic family to share their star charts

Constellations are completelty arbitrary and in the eye of the beholder. The sun is simply a point of light in the sky seen from elsewhere. Insofar as it is bright enough to be seen, then sure, of course.

It's not enough to simply be seen around a bunch of other stars. When you see the constellation of Orion, for example, those stars are nowhere near each other. A constellation is not "painted" on a flat surface. One star in the constellation could be 10 light years away and the next 110 light years away. It's just that from our perspective they tend to line up in a line so we can say, "Hey, that's Orion's belt!"

The point is that we create constellations out of our own minds. There's not a picture of a guy out there that we call Orion. We just made it up, just like we made up the Big Dipper or Draco.

Yes the Sun is part of a constellation.
Imagine zooming away from the Sun - the bright stars nearest the Sun would be stars such as -
Aplha Centauri (binary) 4.3 light years
Sirius 8.6 light years approx,
Procyon 10,
Vega 26,
Arcturus 41,
Capella 47,
Achernar 66,
Betelgeux 190

reply to post by schuyler


Thank you for your response schuyler.

I understand and agree with what you are saying.

This was just a question that popped in my mind I thought I would share. It's kind of a "what if" scenario. My mind drifts on its own sometimes and things and questions just come to me at times.

I think the answer is nobody can know. Yet.

Everyone else thank you for your replies also. I am glad others have thought of this question

The mysteries of the Universe get me thinking quite often.

Originally posted by schuyler
Constellations are completelty arbitrary and in the eye of the beholder. The sun is simply a point of light in the sky seen from elsewhere. Insofar as it is bright enough to be seen, then sure, of course.

It's not enough to simply be seen around a bunch of other stars. When you see the constellation of Orion, for example, those stars are nowhere near each other. A constellation is not "painted" on a flat surface. One star in the constellation could be 10 light years away and the next 110 light years away. It's just that from our perspective they tend to line up in a line so we can say, "Hey, that's Orion's belt!"

The point is that we create constellations out of our own minds. There's not a picture of a guy out there that we call Orion. We just made it up, just like we mad up the Big Dipper or Draco.

edit on 3/13/2012 by schuyler because: (no reason given)

and boom goes the dynamite.

It's just as two members have said, it's an arbitrary thing.
We are the ones who invented the idea of constellations.

But as ArtistPoet pointed out, viewed from another civilization,
we most definitely would meet the requirements to be considered
a constellation. Not a bad one either, with the size of some of our
nearby (constellation) stars.

I have wondered the same thing myself. I would imagine that their would be multiple constellations depending on where the veiwer was.

Here is a picture of the Earth and the Moon taken from the Mercury Messenger spacecraft. This photo is what had me think of what our system looks like from the outside.

reply to post by usmc0311


Fantastic shot
Really gives one another perspective