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Well, That's a Load of Bull
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Rising in the eastern skies in the early evening now is a great horned beast. It is the great constellation of the bull of the heavens, Taurus, and is a scenic point for several reasons, all of which are visible with the naked eye.
There are many myths and stories featuring bulls from both the Greeks and Romans and the peoples before them who influenced their sky.
One famous story involves Europa, a princess in Canaan, and Jupiter, the oversexed, adulterous, and politically incorrect Big God On Campus for the Romans. The story goes that Jupiter, enamored with Europa, disguised himself as a beautiful white bull in a field where Europa and her friends were frolicking about.
Apparently he was so gentle that the trusting Europa decided to climb onto the back of her new Taurus and give it a spin. Jupiter, seizing the opportunity, sprang into the sea and swam all the way to Crete, his latest victim still clinging to his back. She would later become the mother of Minos, a future king of Crete.
As the constellation of the Bull rises in the east the first prominent part of it to be seen is the Pleaides, the tiny trove of stars often incorrectly identified as The Little Dipper. It represents to some the heart of Taurus, but has a story all its own.
Actually many, many stories if you consider cultures all over the world. We'll deal with some of those at a later date. But for now let's glance at the most well known story in the west --- that of the Seven Sisters.
These seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione were once accosted by Orion the Hunter. Zeus, the Greek counterpart of Jupiter, heard their cries and tossed them up in the heavens where they still twinkle today.
To astronomers they represent a classic "open" cluster, a collection of hundreds of stars all born at essentially the same time and in the same delivery ward. Look at them through a pair of binoculars and you see many more than seven sisters. You'll see more sisters, and brothers, and uncles and aunts and cousins ...
Born just millions of years ago, they were not here when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, but were here when ancient civilizations like the Sumerians were beginning to rock the land of Mesopotamia.
At that time, about 5000 years ago, the Pleaides were probably used as an extraterrestrial town crier. Back then the Sisters rose just before the sun in the first weeks of spring, which would have provided a reliable sky marker announcing the coming of the season for the people of the region.
Sadly, the whole group is actually moving away from us and in about a million years, plus or minus, the Sisters will be invisible to the naked eye.
After the heart of the Bull comes the big, easily recognizable V-shaped head of the Bull, also known as the Hyades. But like the Pleaides, these, too, have a story of their own.
Like the Pleiades, the Hyades were another brood of sisters fathered by the apparently very busy Atlas. (Free trivia: The Pleaides and the Hyades are known collectively as the Atlantides.)
In one mythical story these seven were very upset at the death of their brother Hyas and they wept and wept which, according to meteorologists at the time, was the cause of a one major rainfall. So, now guilty by association, both sailors and farmers for centuries blamed the Hyades for any nasty storms on sea and land.
The Hyades, like their half-sisters the Pleaides, are also an open cluster, the brightest of which trace out that famous V-shape. And they are very close to us, a mere 150 light years away.
Look closely at the Big V and you'll see a bright reddish star. That's Aldebaran, from the Arabic "Al Dabaran" meaning "the follower," probably because it follows the Pleaides through the night skies. This giant is not a sibling of the Hyades. It is actually only about 65 light years away --- and enormous.
Aldebaran, often seen as the red eye of the Bull, is nearly 100 times bigger than our sun and bleeds out more than 1000 times more energy! It is a red giant, doomed soon to die a violent death.
Taurus the Bull is a fascinating and feature-filled constellation. Go out and take a test drive through it yourself sometime soon.
Mark Ritter teaches astronomy at Temecula Valley High School and can be reached at mritter@firstlightastro.com.
Posted by Administrator at 2004.11.27 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
