How to Learn Humility With a Simple Change of Perspective
By: Juliano Righetto
Tags: Astronomy, Self Improvement, Humility, Space, Knowledge

Since the emergence of human beings, or rather, since when our brains became capable of complex reasoning, we look at the night skies and wonder what are those “little lights” shining in the darkness. It is difficult to understand that these objects are absurdly large and powerful. So much so that it is common to call them “little stars”.

That is why the first solar system’s models considered the stars as small objects fixed in a crystal dome. Our brains accept this concept better than a model where we are part of something immensely bigger, and our sun is also a “little star” if seen from a planet outside the solar system.

That’s why I decided to do a simple exercise. Analyze what would be the changes in the sky of planets orbiting another star, the closest one to us, and see what changes would happen. It is a great way to “break” this image of the small stars fixed on the crystal dome and provide us with a glimpse of both our smallness and the enormity of the universe.

The sky of some planet in the Proxima Centauri system — the closest star to the Solar System, as the name implies — is very similar to that of Earth. Several of the constellations would not have noticeable changes, since the difference in position between our Solar System and the one there is only 4.22 light-years. This means that the stars far from us are also far from Proxima Centauri, making their constellations keep — approximately — the same design in the sky.

Of the fifty-three stars closest to us, very few are visible to the naked eye. Curious, I know, but the universe really is a place too big, and a small star, even a few light-years away, is not visible by our very limited eyes. Not even Proxima Centauri is! So the constellations where these stars are also would not have noticeable changes, after all, stars invisible to the naked eye here would also be there.

But there are two of these stars that are visible from here on Earth… And they are quite visible. One of them is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, that is, the brightest object from outside the solar system that we can see. Sirius is 8.6 light-years from here, so his position in the sky would change considerably when spotted by Proxima Centauri. We will see…

Image generated by the author using the Celestia software

This star indicated by the arrow is Sirius, seen from Earth. Around here, it is part of the Canis Major constellation, the Greater Dog. It is the brightest star there.

Now let’s see where Sirius would be in the sky of a planet in the Proxima Centauri system:

Image generated by the author using the Celestia software

The interesting thing is that the program I used, Celestia, “distorts” the constellations. So we can clearly see how far Sirius has moved in the sky. Notice that Sirius now has a very bright companion. That red star just below and to the right of Sirius is Betelgeuse, the brightest star in the Orion constellation! Sirius, there, is not part of the Greater Dog, but of Orion — for those who are not familiar with the sky, Orion is the constellation that has, in its center, the famous “Three Kings”, the Orion “belt” further down and further to the left of Sirius in the image.

Another star that is very close to Earth and that would move in the sky would be Procyon, the second brightest star in the constellation next to Sirius’ Greater Dog, the Lesser Dog. Procyon seen from Earth is the star indicated by the arrow below:

Image generated by the author using the Celestia software

Procyon is 11.44 light-years from Earth. It movement in the sky will be slightly greater than that of Sirius as we go to Proxima Centauri… Let’s see:

Image generated by the author using the Celestia software

Procyon, as you can see, seen from Proxima Centauri is inside the Gemini constellation! This would drive some astrologers crazy…

In general, several constellations would have their shapes slightly changed. But these two are the most significant…

Except for two.

Proxima Centauri is part of a triple system, interacting gravitationally with two more stars known as Alpha Centauri A and B. From Earth, this is the appearance of Alpha Centauri, which is, as the name indicates, in the Centaur constellation:

Image generated by the author using the Celestia software

Note that to the right of Alpha Centauri (also called Rigel Kentaurus) is one of the most recognizable constellations in the southern sky, the Crux. Alpha Centauri A and B (which are so close together that they are indistinguishable in the image above) movement and change of bright will be radical. Let’s see, then, where Alpha Centauri would be in the sky of Proxima Centauri:

Image generated by the author using the Celestia software

You can clearly see the difference in brightness, after all Alpha Centauri is much, much closer, and the displacement was huge. Now, Alpha Centauri is close to the head of Scorpio. For the record, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are still too close for us to perceive them as separate stars. But, without a doubt, they would be the brightest star in the skies of the planets orbiting Proxima Centauri.

But the most interesting sky change to a human colonizer from Proxima Centauri would be the one below:

Image generated by the author using the Celestia software

Yes, that little star indicated by the arrow, which would appear shining brightly in Proxima Centauri’s night sky, does not appear in ours. Because that star illuminates us by day. That’s where the sun, the Earth, me, you, and all the people who have lived in the entire history of mankind are!

The sun, our mother star, seen from Proxima Centauri would be part of the Cassiopeia constellation, or perhaps Perseus … Have you ever stopped to think about this?

That we can be part of some constellation of an alien world?

What intelligent beings can look at us and see nothing more than just a small yellow dot with no significance?

And the opposite, then? These points we all see in the sky at night… Several of them can harbor intelligent beings who are, at this moment, living their lives, working, eating, reproducing themselves, reading texts about space in their Internet equivalents…

Astronomy is a great way to teach humility!