Astronomers and astrologers rarely agree on anything. However, they are unanimous that the Sun will be in the constellation Taurus from May 14 to 21. Read the article about how this happened and whether it means that now is the best time to observe this constellation.
May 14-21 is the only week of the year when no one argues that the Sun is in the constellation Taurus. The fact is that astrologers claim that our Sun stays there from April 21 to May 21. At the same time, every astronomer knows that on May 14, our sun just enters the constellation and will leave it on June 19.
The reason for this can be found in this article. To summarize, astrologers use knowledge about the position of the Sun among the stars that was relevant 2000 years ago. Astronomers’ knowledge is based on what they see now.
In any case, the constellation of Taurus deserves to be explored more closely. However, it is almost impossible to do so now, in mid-May. And the reason is that the Sun is in this constellation. That is, it rises and sets almost simultaneously. And it is dangerous to look at our luminary with unprotected eyes.
To see the constellation Taurus, it is worth waiting until at least mid-summer, when it can be seen early in the morning, before dawn. However, the best time to observe it is in winter, when the constellation rises high in the sky around the middle of the night.
The most convenient way to find Taurus in the sky is to use the constellation Orion. Look at its belt – three bright stars arranged in almost a single line. If an imaginary line is drawn from them to the west, you will see a bright star surrounded by less visible ones. This is Aldebaran (α Tauri).
The constellation itself does resemble a bull. The naked eye can count 216 stars in it. At the seventh, the brightest of them form something like a narrowed letter “X”. Two branches of stars extend from the central cluster in all directions. You can see two pairs of legs or horns and one pair of eyes.
What kind of Taurus is this?
The constellation of Taurus was known to ancient peoples under this name. The common myths associated with it are ancient Greek, but it is very likely that they appeared much later than the name of the constellation.
The first myth connects the constellation Taurus with the main Olympic god, Zeus. He transformed into a bull to steal the Phoenician princess Europa. He transported her across the sea to Crete, where he made her his mistress, and the kings of the island were descended from them.
But the myth does not end there. Zeus’s transformations did not go unnoticed, and soon a boy with a bull’s head was born to the family of these same Minoan kings. A palace with many rooms was built for him. Later, this building became known as the Labyrinth, and the monster that lived in it became known as the Minotaur.
Another Greek myth connects the constellation Taurus with the nymph Io, the same one after whom one of Jupiter’s moons is named. According to the legend, she was another lover of Zeus (Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of this Greek god), whom he tried to hide from his wife, Hera. However, the jealous woman sent a gadfly at the unfortunate Io, who was very annoying to her.
In general, there are many myths associated with the constellation Taurus. For example, there is a study that links it to the fact that all Western alphabets begin with the letter “A”. The fact is that until 1500 BC, the vernal equinox was located in this constellation. And, accordingly, it was the first sign of the zodiac.
In Hebrew, “bull” sounds like “aleph”. And this is the name of the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Through the Phoenician alphabet, it passed into the Greek alphabet, where it became “alpha”, and from there it entered the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, retaining its first position.
Taurus stars
If we talk about the stars that can be seen in the constellation Taurus, we should start with Aldebaran. It is the 14th brightest in the Earth’s sky. It is a relatively small red giant located at a distance of 65 light-years. It is only 16% heavier than the Sun, but its radius is 45 times larger than our Sun’s. Its age is 6.4 billion years.
The second brightest star in Taurus is its Beta, called Nath, or El Nath. It is a white-blue giant located 130 light-years away. It is 4.5 times bigger than the Sun by mass, but 700 times bigger by luminosity. It is a young and hot luminary.
No less hot is Alcyone, or Eta Tauri. This is the brightest star in the Pleiades cluster, which is a multiple system, 440 light-years away from us. Its largest component is the blue giant, which exceeds the Sun by 6 times in mass and 2400 times in luminosity.
This luminary rotates so fast that the matter in its equatorial region forms a disk. The system also includes three other luminaries, two of which are relatively small white stars of the main sequence, and the third is yellow-white.
However, the stars of Taurus are interesting not only for their brightness. For example, Gliese 176 is 31 light years away. This is a fairly large red dwarf, with a mass of about 49% of the Sun’s mass and a radius of 48% of the Sun’s. It is interesting because it has a planet around it that is about 9 times heavier than the Earth. One year on, it lasts only 8.8 days, and it is a small hot Neptune.
Another interesting star is T Tauri. It gave its name to a whole class of variable stars. This luminary is very young, its age is only a few million years, and the process of its formation has not yet been completed. An extremely powerful stellar wind blew all the hydrogen to the outskirts of the system, and a nebula formed there.
T Tauri illuminates it, and it continues to move chaotically. The light reflected from this cloud is perceived as a change in the brightness of the star. The distance to it is about 400 light years.
Another star that gave its name to a whole class of variables is RV Tauri. This is a subgiant that undergoes cyclical changes not only in brightness but also in color. At its maximum, it resembles a yellow star with a luminosity 2800 times greater than that of the Sun, and at its minimum, it is red and several dozen times dimmer.
T Tauri pulsates, sometimes inflating, contracting. The main period of brightness fluctuations is 78 days. There is also an additional period of 1200 days. The star has a satellite, a white dwarf.
Pleiades and Hyades
The constellation of Taurus is also interesting because it contains two scattered clusters quite close to the Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades. The first of them is located at a distance of about 400 light years from us. Its brightest object is the aforementioned Alcyone, as well as six other luminaries, which together are called the “seven sisters”. However, this cluster includes at least 700 known objects.
The second cluster, the Hyades, even though the stars in it are dimmer, is located much closer to us. The distance to it is about 150 light-years, making it the closest star cluster to the Earth.
All the stars in it have approximately the same age and were formed about 650 million years ago. Throughout the cluster’s existence, the connection between them has weakened significantly. It is believed that as a gravitationally bound system, the Hyades will cease to exist in about 30 million years.
Crab Nebula
However, the most interesting object in Taurus, which can be seen through a small telescope or even powerful binoculars, is the Crab Nebula. It was this object that the famous astronomer Charles Messier included in his catalog under the first number in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Through telescopes like the one Messier had at his disposal, this object appears as a simple elongated light spot with no sign of stars inside. With more sophisticated and powerful astronomical instruments, it is seen to contain a large number of individual fibers that stick out in all directions and make it look like some kind of crustacean creature.
The best modern studies of the Crab Nebula show its extremely complex structure. But what is it? It is the remnant of a supernova whose light reached the Earth in 1054 and was recorded in Chinese chronicles. It is 6500 light years away. The Crab Nebula is the remnants of a dead star flying away at a speed of 1500 km/s. Its diameter is now 11 light-years.
In the center of the Crab Nebula is what remains of a dead star, the pulsar PSR B0531+21. This object, with a diameter of 20-30 km, became the first neutron star to be associated with a known supernova explosion.
