STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
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Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers. Every once in a while a planet lines up with stars or other planets and creates an eye catching cosmic triangle. And such is the case right now with the red planet Mars and the two brightest stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. And once you understand how different these three objects are from each other you'll definitely want to rush outside and see them. Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for this week and next around 10 p.m. your local time facing west where extremely close to the horizon getting ready to set you'll still be able to see the brightest constellation of winter Orion the Hunter. And to his left the brightest star we can see in the sky, Sirius the eye of his bigger dog. But directly above Orion you'll see three objects, which if connected by lines make an exquisite right triangle. The object closest to the horizon is our old friend the reddish gold planet Mars. And directly above him are the two brightest stars of the constellation Gemini the twins, Castor and Pollux, Pollux being slightly brighter. But the difference between these objects is slightly mind blowing.
Mars for instance is half the size of our planet Earth, 4,000 miles wide and relatively close cosmically speaking. In fact it takes its light only 12 minutes to reach us this week so we say it is 12 light minutes away. Pollux on the other hand is another story. It is a whopping 11 times as wide as our almost one million mile wide Sun, which means we could fit over 10 billion Mars inside it. And is so far away that it takes its light 34 years to reach us. Quite impressive huh? Besides which we recently discovered that it has a planet moving around it which is 3 times as massive as our king of the planets Jupiter. Wow!
Castor is even more impressive because even though Castor looks like one star to the naked eye it is actually a 6 star system, all of which orbit each other in pairs. Pair C consists of two stars much smaller than our Sun, which we call red dwarfs. Pair B consists of two stars, each one and a half times bigger than our Sun. But pair A consists of two stars each two times bigger than our Sun. And all six are involved with each other in an intricate cosmic ballet. And talk about distance! Castor's six stars are 52 light years away. Double wow! So there you have it. A cosmic triangle for you to see and contemplate this week and next in the west around 10 p.m. A close old friend dinky planet Mars, Pollux the brighter of Gemini's bright twin stars, 11 suns wide and Castor the dimmer twin to the naked eye, but in reality six stars waltzing together in the great beyond, perhaps to the music of the spheres? Is this a fabulous universe or what? Keep looking up!
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Horkheimer: See Mars and the two brightest stars of Gemini form a cosmic triangle now! Around 10 p.m. face west and you'll see three objects which make a great triangle. Dinky 4,000 mile wide Mars is only 12 light minutes away. Pollux the brighter Gemini twin, is a whopping 11 times as wide as our Sun and could hold over 10 billion Mars and is 34 light years away. Castor, 52 light years away, is the real winner though because although Castor looks like one star it is actually three pairs of stars, all orbiting each other in a cosmic ballet. Two are smaller than our Sun, two are 1 1/2 times as big and two are twice as big. Is this a fabulous triangle or what? Keep looking up!
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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