![]() Because it's so close to the celestial pole, it traces out a very small circle over 24 hours. Some stars travel a great distance over the course of the night. The farther a star is from the pole, the larger the circle it travels around the sky. Over the hours, these stars each sweep out a circle around the celestial pole. As our planet rotates through the night, the stars around the pole appear to rotate around the sky. Polaris is located quite close to the point in the sky where the north rotational axis points – a spot called the north celestial pole. ![]() Earth rotates around this line, like a spinning top. ![]() This is the imaginary line that extends through the planet and out of the north and south poles. ![]() Polaris, known as the North Star, sits more or less directly above Earth's north pole along our planet's rotational axis. Polaris appears very close to the spot in the sky where Earth's axis of rotation points. ![]()
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