Star
Capella
Red star · M1: comp
α Aurigae · Auriga
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Capella is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga. It has the Bayer designation α Aurigae, which is Latinised to Alpha Aurigae and abbreviated Alpha Aur or α Aur. Capella is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega. A prominent object in the northern sky, it is circumpolar to observers north of 44°N. Its name meaning "little goat" in Latin, Capella depicted the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus in classical mythology. Capella is relatively close, at 42.9 light-years. It is one of the brightest X-ray sources in the sky, thought to come primarily from the corona of Capella Aa.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In your sky
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Key facts
Distance
~42.8 light-years
Apparent mag.
+0.08
Spectral type
M1: comp
Luminosity
139 × Sun
Absolute mag.
−0.51
Catalogue
HIP 24608
Spectral type
M1: comp
True colour from its B–V index (0.80): a surface around 5300 K.
Did you know
- Capella is also known as α Aurigae.
- Its spectral type M1: comp marks it as a red star.
- It lies in the constellation Auriga.
