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50 free Polaris trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Polaris trivia for stargazers, sailors, science students and anyone who has ever found north by following the Big Dipper's pointer stars. Most of this quiz is about the North Star itself: the yellow supergiant Alpha Ursae Minoris and its two companions, the four-day Cepheid pulse that makes it a rung on the cosmic distance ladder, the roughly 430-light-year distance argued over by Hipparcos, Hubble and Gaia, and the slow wobble of Earth's axis that made Thuban the pole star for the pyramid builders and will hand the job to Vega in 12,000 years. It also covers Polaris in human hands: Pytheas finding no star at the pole, Columbus correcting for its circle, Shakespeare's 'constant as the northern star', lodestar and cynosure, the Underground Railroad's drinking gourd, and the flags of Alaska and Nunavut. And because the name has been borrowed so often, there are questions on the Polaris submarine missile, Canada's Polaris Music Prize, the Minnesota snowmobile maker, Magneto's daughter in the X-Men and SpaceX's Polaris Dawn spacewalk. Questions range from easy to expert, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. If you enjoy this quiz, try our constellations, astronomy and navigation quizzes next.
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Q 01Polaris is the brightest star of which constellation?
Ursa Minor
Its designation is Alpha Ursae Minoris; it marks the tip of the Little Dipper's handle.
Q 02What kind of star is Polaris Aa, the main component of the system?
Yellow supergiant
It is spectral type F7Ib, with about five times the Sun's mass and a radius 46 times larger.
Q 03Polaris looks like one star but is actually how many?
Three
Polaris Aa and its close companion Ab are orbited at a distance by Polaris B; two further 'companions' turned out to be unrelated.
Q 04Who discovered Polaris B, the outer companion, in August 1779?
William Herschel
He used a reflecting telescope of his own making; the inner pair was only confirmed in the early 20th century.
Q 05Which space telescope first resolved all three members of the Polaris system in January 2006?
Hubble
The CHARA Array later refined the inner orbit and put the supergiant's mass at about 5.1 solar masses.
Q 06Polaris is the closest example of which class of pulsating star, used as a 'standard candle'?
Cepheid variable
Henrietta Leavitt found the period-luminosity relationship for these stars in 1908; Polaris pulses roughly every four days.
Q 07Roughly how long is Polaris's pulsation period?
4 days
The period has been creeping longer by about 4.5 seconds a year, though a 2023 study found it began shrinking around 2010.
Q 08Which Danish astronomer confirmed in 1911 that Polaris is a variable star?
Ejnar Hertzsprung
Its brightness range is only about 1.86 to 2.13 and the amplitude has shrunk since then, a change seen in no other Cepheid.
Q 09Research in the journal Science suggests Polaris has done what since Ptolemy observed it?
Brightened about 2.5 times
Astronomer Edward Guinan called such a change 100 times larger than stellar evolution theory predicts.
Q 10Approximately how far away is Polaris, according to the Gaia mission?
446 light-years
Hipparcos had put Polaris A at about 432 light-years; a rival 'short' estimate of around 323 light-years was long debated.
Q 11Is Polaris the brightest star in the night sky?
No, it ranks only around 47th
Its apparent magnitude of about 1.98 is respectable, but its fame comes from position, not brilliance.
Q 12How far was Polaris from the true north celestial pole in 2018?
0.66 degrees
That is about 1.4 Moon-widths; it will close to about 0.45 degrees soon after 2100 before drifting away again.
Q 13In the northern hemisphere, the height of Polaris above the horizon gives a navigator approximately what?
The observer's latitude
Q 21In which 1492 work did the phrase 'stella polaris', source of the name Polaris, first appear in print?
The Alfonsine Tables
That same year Columbus had to correct his course for the circle the star described about the pole.
Q 22Which explorer corrected for 'the circle described by the pole star' on his first Atlantic crossing in 1492?
Christopher Columbus
Polaris was then several degrees from the pole, far more than today.
Q 23In which Shakespeare play does the title character call himself 'as constant as the northern star'?
Julius Caesar
An anachronism: in Caesar's own day there was no constant northern star.
Twice each sidereal day its bearing is exactly true north; the rest of the time a small correction is needed.
Q 14Which two stars in the bowl of the Plough are the 'pointers' that lead the eye to Polaris?
Dubhe and Merak
Extend the line through the front of the bowl about five times its length and you reach the North Star.
Q 15Why does the pole star change over thousands of years?
Earth's axis wobbles in a 26,000-year precession
Hipparchus is usually credited with discovering the precession of the equinoxes in the 2nd century BC.
Q 16Which star in Draco was the pole star around 2750 BC, when the pyramids were being built?
Thuban
In 3000 BC it lay within 0.1 degrees of the pole, closer than any other visible pole star.
Q 17Which bright star will be the pole star around AD 14,500?
Vega
Before that the pole passes Errai in Cepheus around AD 4000 and Deneb around AD 10,000.
Q 18Which Greek navigator, around 320 BC, described the celestial pole as having no star at all?
Pytheas
In classical times the pole lay roughly midway between Kochab and Polaris, about 10 degrees from each.
Q 19Kochab and Pherkad, the two bright stars in the bowl of the Little Bear, are known by what nickname?
The Guardians of the Pole
From about 1700 BC to AD 300 they served as twin pole stars, though neither was as close to the pole as Polaris is now.
Q 20What is the dim southern counterpart of Polaris, one degree from the south celestial pole?
Sigma Octantis
Officially named Polaris Australis, it is only magnitude 5.5 and barely visible to the naked eye.
Q 24The old English word 'lodestar' for Polaris means what?
Guiding star
It is attested from the 14th century and is cognate with Old Norse leidarstjarna.
Q 25The word 'cynosure' comes from a Greek name for the Little Bear meaning what?
Dog's tail
By the early modern period Cynosura had become a name for the pole star itself.
Q 26In the Hindu Puranas, the pole star is personified under which name, meaning 'immovable'?
Dhruva
Finnish tradition called it the 'nail star', as if the sky were fastened to it.
Q 27In the African-American folk song 'Follow the Drinking Gourd', the drinking gourd stands for what?
The Big Dipper
The song, first published in 1928, encoded directions north for people escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad.
Q 28Which state's flag, designed by 13-year-old Benny Benson in 1927, shows the Plough and Polaris?
Alaska
Polaris also appears on the flags of Maine, Minnesota, Nunavut and the city of Duluth.
Q 29Which Canadian territory's flag and coat of arms feature Polaris alongside an inuksuk?
Nunavut
In Inuit astronomy the star is called Nuutuittuq.
Q 30The Polynesian Voyaging Society uses the Hawaiian name Hokupa'a for Polaris. What does it mean?
Fixed star
The Lakota name Wichahpi Owanzila likewise means the star that stands still.