Dubhe and Merak are just two of the twelve stars discovered by the Windows scientists. These two are located in Ursa Major.
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Windows Team Discovers Twelve Stars!
News story originally written on February 22, 2000

Something new and exciting is happening at Windows to the Universe! Windows scientists say they discovered twelve new stars, including one that is the second brightest in the night sky! They decided to create web pages for each of these stars. Windows scientists can't believe no one has discovered them before.

"It's truly amazing!" writes Chris Gleason, one of the scientists that discovered the stars. "We don't understand how others missed these bright stars in constellations like Leo, Ursa Major and Virgo. We gave each star a name and made a page with some information about them."

Highlights of the discoveries include the North Star, also known as Polaris, the famous...er... bright star Algol, and Acrux, a star in the constellation Crux, which isn't even visible from the Windows office!

"I'm just so excited about these stars! We will continue to search our books...er...sky to find more of these bright objects. Until then, we recommend that users study these stars and their constellations," Gleason said.

Stay tuned for further updates...

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Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA