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| Auriga | |
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| Abbreviation | Aur |
| Genitive | Aurigae |
| Meaning in English | the Charioteer |
| Right ascension | 6 h |
| Declination | 40° |
| Visible to latitude | Between 90° and −40° |
| Best visible | May |
| Area - Total | Ranked 21st 657 sq. deg. |
| Number of stars with apparent magnitude < 3 | 4 |
| Brightest star - Apparent magnitude | Capella 0.08 |
| Meteor showers | |
| Bordering constellations | |
Auriga (the charioteer) is a northern constellation. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy, and counts as one of the 88 modern constellations. Its brightest starFor alternate meanings see star (disambiguation Hubble Space Telescope of the Sagittarius Star Cloud in the Milky Way Galaxy. A star is any massive gaseous celestial body in outer space. Stars appear as shining points in the nighttime sky that twinkle bec is Capella, which is associated with the mythological she-goat AmaltheaIn Greek mythology, Amalthea ("tender") is the foster-mother of Zeus. She is sometimes represented as the goat which suckled the infant-god in a cave in Crete, sometimes as a nymph of uncertain parentage (daughter of Oceanus, Haemonius, Olen, Melisseus),. The three stars Epsilon, Zeta and Eta Aurigae are called Haedi (the Kids).
Two peculiar binary stars, ε Aurigae and ζ Aurigae. ε Aurigae is one of the strangest binary starA binary star system consists of two stars both orbiting around their barycenter. The term "binary star" was apparently first coined by Sir William Herschel in 1802 to designate "a real double star the union of two stars that are formed together in one sys. The orbital period is about 27 years, with an eclipse duration of about 18 months. The visible companion is a yellowish ( F-classStars can be classified by using Wien's Displacement Law; but this poses difficulties for distant stars. Stellar spectroscopy offers a way to classify stars according to their absorption lines; particular absorption lines can be observed only for a certai) supergiantA supergiant is a very large type of star which is ~10 to 50 solar masses on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Supergiants can have radii in excess of 1000 solar radii. Because of their extreme masses they have short lifespans of only 10 to 50 million year. The type of the other star is not known. ζ Aurigae has a period of 970 days, the primary is a ( K-classStars can be classified by using Wien's Displacement Law; but this poses difficulties for distant stars. Stellar spectroscopy offers a way to classify stars according to their absorption lines; particular absorption lines can be observed only for a certai) supergiantA supergiant is a very large type of star which is ~10 to 50 solar masses on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Supergiants can have radii in excess of 1000 solar radii. Because of their extreme masses they have short lifespans of only 10 to 50 million year and the secondary is a ( B-class) main sequence star. Both these systems present a rare stage of binary evolution, as the components are in a short and active evolotionary stage.