• Question: Do constellations ever break apart or change?

    Asked by Andrew to Camilla, Dan, Katie, Mike, Rhys on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Katie Sparks

      Katie Sparks answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      The consetllations that we can see are all a very very long way away.
      As the universe expands, they’re getting even further away.
      The constellations only look the way they do to us, because they are so far away. Over time (thousands of years) the constellations will change shape – but we don’t really see it because the difference in how much further away they are moving is so small compared to how far away they already are.

    • Photo: Camilla Weiss

      Camilla Weiss answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      Constellations are made up of stars and even though stars live for millions and billions of years they do die. This means that points in the constellations may fade away with time, or get brighter if they go supernova.

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