New and Ancient Dramas Light up the Night Sky!
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| A dramatic rendering of Orion pursuing Taurus from Johannes Hevelius, a 17th c. Polish astronomer and brewer who compiled the most comprehensive star atlas at that time. (Wikimedia image) |
From my backyard after dark, I if I look over the camellia bush, neighbor’s fence, past the power pole, and up into the night sky I can see stars bright enough to shine through the urban night glare. I can go out and watch the moon rise and the planets in their succession and timing. As I was pondering there the other night, I realized I had a full view of Orion’s famous belt, and part of Taurus the Bull. Just out of view to the west, the Seven Sisters (the Pleiades) fled in front of Taurus and just below Orion’s left heel, his two faithful dogs trailed, the Big Dog and the Little Dog, Canis Major and Canis Minor. How many of you know these constellations?
These were my first constellations I could reliably identify beyond the Big Dipper. They are prominent in the southern winter sky and ride along the celestial equator -- they can be seen throughout the world and have many names depending on the country. I learned them in my 20’s, my first winter working at an Outdoor School for 6th graders. I would lead my cabin-full of girls out into a clearing in the forest of the San Bernardino Mountains. There we would wonder at the bright skies above us in the frosty forest night. I loved relaying the ancient Greek stories of the constellations to them, helping them to pick out the stars and giving them ways to remember them. The most fun, though, was at the end of the evening, partnering up to chomp on wintergreen lifesavers which make sparks when you chew them with your mouth open. The cold sparks of the sugar and wintergreen bonds breaking lit up in our mouths, making tiny star explosions of our own. There are scores of 40 year olds out in the world today that may still remember these constellations because of the time we spent together.
The story of Orion goes back to Greek oral traditions several centuries before it was first recorded in the 7th-8th century B.C. Orion, so his story goes, was the most handsome of the earthborn. His father was Poseidon, god of the Sea. His mother, Euryale, was a mortal, daughter of King Minos of Crete and the granddaughter of Dionysus, the god of fruitfulness, ecstacy and wine. From his father, Orion inherited the power to walk on water. He was a renowned hunter, which eventually led to his fall. He walked on water to the island of Chios where he bore the wrath of King Oenopion after getting drunk and raping the king’s daughter. The king had him blinded and removed from the island. Blind Orion made his way eastward to the island of Lemnos where the sun god, Helios, restored his eyesight. Orion then went to Crete and hunted with the goddess, Artemis, and her mother Leto. He loved the hunt so much that he declared he’d kill every animal in the world. The goddess of Earth, Gaea, heard this and became so angry that she sent a giant scorpion to kill him. He battled the scorpion, but found his arrows couldn’t penetrate the animal’s thick armour. After he died, Artemis and Leto petitioned Zeus to put him in the sky as a memorial. He did, along with the scorpion that killed him. Today Orion appears with three bright stars outlining his belt and three more stars descending from it as his sword. His broad shoulders are defined by two angled stars and his heels or knees (depending on which pose you imagine him) two more stars below the belt.
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| The Hubble Telescope captured this image of a Red Giant (not Orion's Red Giant) V838 Monocerotis which in 2002 briefly flared to 600,00 times the brightness of our sun making it the 2nd brightest object in the sky. The telescopic image has helped scientists to better study the rings of dust surrounding an aging star. (Wikimedia image) |
The stars themselves in this constellation are fascinating with some of the youngest and oldest forms represented. Most of Orion’s stars are young, bright bluish stars with a couple of exceptions. The right shoulder of Orion is a reddish color, even to the naked eye. It’s a red giant, a dying star, that is expanding as it exhausts its resources. If it were our sun, the Red Giant would extend past Jupiter’s orbit. Within 1 million years, which isn’t that long in star terms, scientists expect it to explode into a Supernova. In Orion’s sword, there are two birthplaces of new stars: nebulas. The Orion Nebula is the middle star of the sword. You can view it with binoculars and see that it looks fuzzy compared to the crisp outline of the other stars. Near it is the Horsehead Nebula, named for its resemblance to a seahorse, which may be the main nebula people have seen in photos.
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| Young stars are forming in the base, beneath the horse-head shape. The neck and head of the horse are formed of dust. (Wikimedia image) |
Science has advanced and we can investigate these most remote phenomenon with stunning visuals and details. Just last week NASA’s space probe, New Horizons, sent back stunning images of a new sub-planet discovered outside the orbit of Pluto, named Ultima Thule. So I’m calling on you to look up from your devices, step outside your office and comfortable home, enjoy the view of the stars, and learn their stories and histories. Granted, our GPS and Google Maps make it unlikely that most of us will have to rely on celestial navigation, and the city lights dim the stars, making it difficult to realize the scope and magnitude of the whole Milky Way (no, not the candy bar!). But go outside, gaze up, and wonder at the myriad galaxies and potential worlds beyond our own. See Orion and the amazing night sky for yourself and maybe chomp a wintergreen lifesaver (with a partner)!
Here’s a good starter website for enjoying the night sky:
Why wintergreen lifesavers spark:
For more about Ultima Thule see: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/30/science/nasa-new-horizons-kuiper-belt.html
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