The constellation Auriga is overhead at 8 p.m. this week. It is not as well-known as some of the other winter constellations but it is large and is composed of bright stars.
Auriga is an old constellation. The Mesopotamians thought of its stars as a scimitar. Later, Bedouins in Northern Africa imagined it as a heard of goats. The Greeks called it the Charioteer after Erichthonius. He was the son of Athena and Hephaestus. Born unable to walk, he invented the four-horse chariot to give himself mobility.
Auriga is located above the constellation Orion. Its bright yellowish star Capella is easy to spot.
The constellation is located directly above the constellation Orion. This week it is easy to find because you can go outside at 8 p.m. and look straight up. It has a distinctive, if very lopsided, hexagon shape, though you'll need to borrow the star Elnath at the tip of one of Taurus' horns.
The bright yellowish star Capella stands out here. The brightest star in Auriga, It is a sun-like star 43 light years away and the sixth-brightest star in the night sky. Although sun-like in color, this star system is quite different from our own. It consists of four stars. Two yellow giants orbit each other and are about 2.5 times as massive as our own sun. On their way to becoming red giant stars, they are incredibly close together -- only 62 million miles -- which means they orbit each other in only 104 days. This pair is orbited by another pair of red dwarf stars. These two complete an orbit once every 400 years.
Capella is associated with the mythological she-goat Amalthea, who breast-fed the infant Zeus. The goat's milk spilled and created the Milky Way. Speaking of goats, look for a little triangle next to Capella. This represents three baby goats and
is known as "The Kids."
This is an appropriate story as the constellation sits in the winter portion of the Milky Way. Scanning this part of the sky reveals a wealth of stars and star clusters.
Auriga lies in the winter portion of the Milky Way and is rich in stars and star clusters such as M36, M37 and M38.
Three well-known star clusters can be found in Auriga by using binoculars or a small telescopes. They form a rough line extending out from near the center of Auriga. They are designated M36, M37 and M38 in the Messier catalog and they lie about 4,000 light years away from us. M37 is the brightest of the three clusters and is rich with stars, making it quite a fine object to view in a small telescope. It contains perhaps as many as 500 stars.
Latest image from Jupiter
This spectacular image of Jupiter's South Pole was taken last week by NASA Juno spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Kevin D. Conod is the planetarium manager and astronomer at the Newark Museum's Dreyfuss Planetarium. For updates on the night sky, call the Newark Skyline at (973) 596-6529.