Our current north star is Polaris, but that's going to change because the Earth's axis is wobbling. This wobble (which you can imagine is like the wobble of a top as it spins) is called "precession," and it's caused by the competing gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon. We'll have another north star called Gamma Cephei in about 3,000 years, and Polaris will be our north star again in ~26,000 years after our axis precesses one full cycle.
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MOIYA MCTIER,
Astrophysicist, Folklorist, & Science Communicator
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