Celestial photo highlights Polaris and its surrounding dust in the night sky

This is a photograph synthesized digitally from the faint gases and dust surrounding the star known as 'Polaris,' often referred to as the North Star. Polaris is the brightest star closest to Earth's northern rotational axis. As Earth rotates, the stars appear to revolve around Polaris, but Polaris itself always maintains the same position in the north, which is why it is called the North Star. There are no bright stars near Earth's southern rotational axis. Thousands of years ago, Earth's rotational axis pointed in a slightly different direction, making Vega the North Star. While Polaris is not the brightest star in the sky, it can be easily located as it is nearly aligned with the two stars in the cup of the Big Dipper.