The fixed stars (from the Latin stellae fixae) are celestial objects that do not seem to move in relation to the other stars of the night sky. Hence, a fixed star is any star except for the Sun. A nebula or other starlike object may also be called a fixed star. People in many cultures have imagined that the stars form pictures in the sky called constellations. In ancient Greek astronomy, the stars were believed to exist on a giant celestial sphere, or firmament, that revolved around the Earth daily.
Read more about Fixed Stars: Origination of Name, The Fixed Stars Are not Fixed, The Fixed Stars in Classical Mechanics
Famous quotes containing the words fixed and/or stars:
“A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense ahistorical.”
—Juliet Mitchell (b. 1940)
“Rather than have it the principal thing in my son’s mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and that the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament.”
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842)