STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
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Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers.
Right now the constellation Gemini the Twins is at its best for
viewing in early evening. And while most people have heard of
the two brightest stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, not many
people are aware that these twin brothers have a magnificent assortment
of hidden siblings. Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for the first two weeks of march, 8 to 9 p.m., your local time, facing due south where a third of the way up from the horizon you'll see the brightest star in the heavens Sirius which marks the eye of Orion's bigger dog. And just up to Sirius' right the bright stars which mark Orion himself. But up much higher and to Orion's left you will encounter two more bright stars, which are named for the famous twin brothers in Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux. Pollux, the brighter of the two, is closer to the horizon and if you look closely, has a slightly orangeish tint to it. Castor, on the other hand, although a tiny bit dimmer, is white.
Now for over two thousand years these two stars were considered the patrons of sailors and seafaring peoples and have been long associated with the phenomenon called "St. Elmo's fire". But as ancient as these twin stars are modern science has revealed that there is much more to them hidden from the naked eye. Indeed, upon closer examination we find that the brighter twin Pollux is a humongous star much bigger than its brother and is in fact almost eleven times the diameter of our own million mile wide Sun. Dimmer Castor however, is not to be outdone by his brother because he hides magnificent secrets. In fact with telescopes and other instruments castor has revealed himself to be more than just one star. Indeed way back during the time of the American revolution astronomers discovered that when they looked at Castor through a telescope it had a companion. Thus Castor became the first true binary star ever discovered.
But later as telescopes improved and other astronomical instruments were invented astronomers were astonished to find out that Castor and his hidden brother each had a companion star which made Castor a quadruple star. And then, surprise of surprises, several years later two more smaller siblings were found which gave Castor the distinction of being not just a quadruple star but a sextuplet star, three pairs of stars all moving about each other in an extremely intricate and magnificent cosmic ballet, with four of the stars being bigger than our own Sun. Wow! Whoever said, "appearances are deceiving", wasn't just kidding.
So go outside during the first two weeks of
March, 8 to 9 p.m., look due south and after you've found the
brightest star Sirius and above him all the bright stars of Orion
, look above him and you'll see the most famous twins in the cosmos
which modern science has revealed to be seven sensational siblings.
Is this universe weird or what? I'm Jack Horkheimer, keep looking
up!
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Horkheimer: Everyone has heard about Gemini the Twins, but have you ever heard about their five siblings? Between 8 and 9 p.m. face south and above the brightest star we can see Sirius and the super bright stars of Orion you'll see the two brightest stars of Gemini, white Castor and orangeish Pollux. Brighter Pollux is 11 times wider than our own million mile wide Sun but dimmer Castor is the more fascinating twin. During the American Revolution early telescopes showed it to be a double star but more modern telescopes reveal that it is not just two stars but three pairs of stars, six stars all together orbiting each other in an intricate cosmic ballet. So the twin stars of Gemini are actually seven sensational siblings. Keep looking up!
How did you like this episode?
Please give us your comments. (Click
Here)
* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
![[SmilinJack]](jack1sm.jpg)
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