In winter, the stars in the sky light up much earlier than in summer, and therefore not only astronomers and lovers of late walks can enjoy them. And there is something to see! Majestic Orion rises high above the horizon, accompanied by Gemini and Taurus, and next to them lights up the Auriga - a constellation with a long history and a large number of interesting objects. That is what we are focusing on today.
Location
Auriga - the constellation is bright and clearly visible to the naked eye. In shape, it resembles an irregular pentagon. The best reference point for finding this celestial pattern is Ursa Major. Somewhat to the right of it, you can see a rather bright dot. This is Alpha Aurigae, Capella - a star that can be seen even under not very favorable conditions. It marks one of the vertices of the pentagon. A little to the right (east) of the Chapel is a small elongated triangle formed by three luminaries. These stars in the sky along with alphaCharioteers form the asterism "Kids".
Other celestial drawings can serve as reference points. Charioteer is located north of Gemini and east of Perseus. You can observe the constellation on the territory of our country almost all year round. It rises highest above the horizon in December and January, and in June and July, on the contrary, the Charioteer is poorly visible due to bright nights and low location.
Legend
The stars of the constellation Auriga in ancient times were associated by scientists with several characters. In Mesopotamia, the celestial drawing was called the "shepherd's staff" or "scimitar". It is not known, however, whether he included the Chapel. In Babylon, almost all the bright stars of the Charioteer were also associated with a shepherd watching goats or sheep. Among the Bedouins, they were considered a group of animals. The charioteer was a herd of goats.
In ancient astronomy, this celestial pattern was also originally thought to be associated with grazing goats. Later, the main part of the constellation became associated with the figure of a man driving a chariot. In the days of Ancient Greece, several characters of myths were associated with Charioteer. Most often it was Erichthonius, the son of Hephaestus and the pupil of Athena. He is credited with the invention of the chariot with two wheels and four horses (quadriga). As a reward for this, as well as for his devoted service to Athena, Erichthonius was placed in heaven by Zeus. And so the constellation Auriga appeared.
Traces of the past
Mythology of Ancient Greece and its predecessorsleft their mark on the traditional image of the constellation. On maps of the night sky, you can see the Charioteer in the form of a man, on whose back a goat is located, and on his hand are two kids. In ancient times, a separate constellation of the Goat was even distinguished, which correlated with the mythical Am althea, who nursed Zeus. It was composed of Chapel, ε, ζ and η Charioteer. The latter form the same small triangle, which is located to the right of the brightest star in the picture.
Interesting objects
The constellation of the northern hemisphere of the sky, Auriga, includes approximately 150 "points". There are many interesting objects on its territory. First of all, these are the stars: Capella (alpha), Mencalinan (beta), Al Anz and Hedus (epsilon and zeta). In addition, the planetary nebula IC 2149 and the large cluster of galaxies MACS 0717 are located here. With binoculars or a small telescope in the region of the sky occupied by Auriga, you can see open star clusters M36, M37 and M38. They are removed from our planet at a distance of 4-4, 5 thousand light years.
Alpha constellation
If you see this celestial pattern at least once, then the question of which star is the brightest in the constellation Auriga will be resolved by itself. The chapel stands out well from other "points" overhead. It is considered the sixth brightest in the sky and is clearly visible even under conditions that are not the most favorable for observation.
Capella is a star with an apparent magnitude of 0.08. It is 40 light-years from the Sun. ForTo an Earth observer, it looks yellow-orange, which is why it is often confused with Mars. The chapel is a system of two pairs of stars. The first and brightest combines similar cosmic bodies. They belong to the yellow stars and exceed our luminary in diameter by 10 times. The distance between the components of the pair is only two thirds of the length of the segment "Sun - Earth".
The second part of the system consists of red dwarfs. They are removed from a pair of yellow stars for one light year. Red dwarfs are much smaller and emit relatively little light.
Beta Aurigae
Menkalinan is the second brightest star in this celestial pattern. Its name in Arabic means "shoulder of the one who holds the reins." Beta Aurigae is a triple star system. Its two components are almost identical to each other. Each star that makes up a pair shines 48 times more powerful than the Sun and belongs to the class of subgiants. The distance between the elements of the pair is very small - only 0.08 astronomical units, which is equivalent to a fifth of the segment "Earth - Sun". The nuclei of both components of the pair ran out of hydrogen. Stars are going through that stage of evolution when their size and brightness begin to increase due to new processes that occur in the depths. The small distance separating the components leads to their deformation under the action of tidal forces. Another consequence of this interaction is the synchronization of the period of revolution and rotation around the axis. Its result is expressed in the fact that the two stars are always turned towards each othersame side.
The third component of the system is a red dwarf at a distance of 330 astronomical units from the pair. It is impossible to see it with the naked eye from Earth.
Epsilon
Auriga is a constellation with at least one object that keeps many modern astronomers on their toes. This is an epsilon of a celestial pattern, which has the traditional names Almaaz ("kid") and Al Anz (the exact meaning is unknown). An eclipsing binary star attracts the attention of many experts around the world because of the mystery of one of the components. A bright element of the Epsilon Aurigae system is a supergiant of spectral type F0. Its radius is 100-200 times greater than the sun. In terms of brightness, the star “outstrips” our luminary by 40-60 thousand times.
The second component is supposed to belong to the spectral class B. In the literature, it is referred to only as "invisible". Every 27 years, it outshines the bright star for 630-740 days (approximately 2 years). It is called invisible because it emits very little light for such an object, that is, it is quite difficult to study it. It has been suggested that the dark component is a binary system surrounded by a dense dust disk, or is a translucent star or a black hole. Recent studies using the Spitzer telescope have shown that, most likely, the mysterious element is a class B star. It is surrounded by a dust disk consisting of rather large particles resembling gravel in size. However, the point in this matter has not yet been set andstudy of the system continues.
Zeta
Another eclipsing binary in this celestial drawing is Zeta Aurigae. The historical names of the star are Khedus and Sadatoni. It shines 1700 times brighter than the Sun. The system consists of two components. The first is an orange giant of spectral type K4. The second is a white-blue star located on the main sequence and belonging to class B5. Every 2.66 years it "disappears" behind a fainter, but larger component. Such an eclipse reduces the overall brightness of the star by about 15%.
The average distance between the components of the system is estimated at 4.2 astronomical units. They rotate in elongated orbits.
Auriga is a constellation that is interesting both for observing without any devices, and for a thorough study with the help of professional equipment. Its objects can tell a lot of interesting things, and therefore astronomers around the world point their telescopes at them.
