Capella
Sign in to saveCapella is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga. It has the Bayer designation α Aurigae, which is Latinised to Alpha Aurigae and abbreviated Alpha Aur or α Aur. Capella is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega. A prominent object in the northern sky, it is circumpolar to observers north of 44°N. Its name meaning "little goat" in Latin, Capella depicted the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus in classical mythology. Capella is relatively close, at . It is one of the brightest X-ray source
AI overview
Capella is the sixth-brightest star visible in Earth's night sky and the third-brightest star for those in the northern hemisphere, located in the constellation Auriga. It is notable for being relatively close to Earth and one of the brightest X-ray sources, and it holds cultural significance as the star traditionally associated with the goat from classical mythology.
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Article
16 sectionsContents
- Nomenclature
- Observational history
- Multiple status
- X-ray source
- Observation
- Distance
- Stellar system
- Capella A
- Capella HL
- Visual companions
- Etymology and culture
- Namesakes
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Sources
Capella is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga. It has the Bayer designation α Aurigae, which is Latinised to Alpha Aurigae and abbreviated Alpha Aur or α Aur. Capella is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega. A prominent object in the northern sky, it is circumpolar to observers north of 44°N. Its name meaning "little goat" in Latin, Capella depicted the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus in classical mythology. Capella is relatively close, at . It is one of the brightest X-ray sources in the sky, thought to come primarily from the corona of Capella Aa.
Although it appears to be a single star to the naked eye, Capella is actually a quadruple star system organized in two binary pairs stars: the primary pair Capella Aa and Capella Ab; and the secondary pair Capella H and Capella L. The primaries are two bright-yellow giant stars, both of which are around 2.5 Solar masses. The secondary pair, are around 10,000 astronomical units (AU) from the first. They are faint, small and relatively cool red dwarfs.