The Stars We Find Along The Way Quiz

Answer: Ram

The name is derived from "ras al-hamal", meaning "head of the ram". The other two stars of the asterism form the "horns of the ram" (qarna al-hamal). Even though it's not as bright as some other stars in the night sky, it is one of the "navigational stars", i.e., stars that are used as a point of reference in navigation.

Also, in ancient times, Hamal was the brightest star in the constellation that contained the northern vernal equinox, the point where the Sun's apparent path crosses the celestial equator from south to north, thus marking the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere. This is the reason why the horoscope starts at Aries (although, recently, the equinox has moved to the Pisces constellation).

Answer: Aldebaran

Taurus' most notable features are the Pleiades and Hyades, two of the nearest open star clusters to Earth. However, Aldebaran is not part of those. Derived from the Arabic word for "the follower", Aldebaran's name illustrates the fact that it seems to "follow" the Pleiades during the motion of the celestial sphere in the night.

Although it's cooler than the Sun, is a lot more massive, and about 400 times more luminous. Therefore, it is relatively easy to observe it in the night sky, particularly between November and December in the northern hemisphere.

Answer: Pollux

Gemini constellation resembles two stick figures, representing the twins. Both stars mark the head of each of the figures. While Pollux is a single star, Castor is actually a system consisting of six stars.

Pollux is the 17th brightest star in the sky. It has twice the mass and almost nine times the radius of the Sun. At 33,78 light years of distance from the Earth, it is the nearest giant star to the Solar System.

Answer: Longest name of all the known stars

Stemming from Ancient Babylonian, the star is called "Arkushanangarushashutu", meaning "the southeast star in the crab". Its most common name is "Asellus Australis", or "southern donkey colt" in Latin.

Cancer is one of the dimmest zodiacal constellations (with some actually considering it the faintest of all), and it's invisible to the naked eye when under city skies. Its brightest star, for the record, is Beta Cancri, with the common name of "Al Tarf" or just "Tarf".

Answer: Regulus

Lying at the base of an asterism named "The Sickle", Regulus is a quadruple star system, with a magnitude of around 1,36 (magnitude is measured on an inverse logarithmic scale, so the lower the magnitude, the brighter the object).

This star is an example of what's called "gravity darkening". Due to its high rotational speed, it distorts its shape into an oblate spheroid, causing the poles to be closer to the centre of mass, and have a higher temperature and brightness, than the equatorial regions.

Answer: Spica

Virgo is the largest constellation in the zodiac, and the second largest in the sky, after Hydra.
Spica is its brightest star, and the mnemonic provides a way to find it in the sky, which involves following the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to Arcturus (in the constellation of Böotes), and continuing in the same angular distance ("spike") to reach Spica.

Answer: Zubenelschaffen

Zubeneschamali (the brightest) means "the northern claw", Zubenelgenubi means "the southern claw", and Zubenelhakrabi means "the claw of the scorpion". Even though these names trace back to when they were considered part of Scorpius constellation, they were officially registered that way by the International Astronomical Union in their list of approved names.

"Zubenelschaffen" does not exist, not only as a star, but as a word itself. It's a made-up weird mixture of Arabic and German.

Answer: Antares

"Ant" + "Ares" was the solution to that mini riddle.

Antares is one of the biggest stars visible to the naked eye. It is a binary system, with its main component being a red supergiant. It's easier to see from the southern hemisphere, due to its declination, and it's located near the center of the constellation, thus leading to the nickname "heart of the scorpion".

The name Antares comes from Ancient Greek, meaning "rival to Ares", referring to its reddish color, similar to that of Mars. Remember: Mars was the Roman god of war, and the Greek equivalent was Ares. In fact, in modern Greek, the red planet still retains the name "Ares".

Answer: Teapot

A total of eight stars form the so called "teapot", with one of them being Kaus Australis, the brightest star of the constellation.

Sagittarius is located very near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Under optimal observation conditions, a dense part of the galaxy lies just above the "spout" of the teapot, giving the impression of steam coming out of it.

Answer: Because the stars periodically eclipse each other

"Deneb Algedi", meaning "The Tail of the Goat" in Arabic, is part of a larger system named "Delta Capricorni" under the Bayer designation, being the brightest component of the whole system and of the constellation itself (which, by the way, is the smallest one in all of the zodiac).

It's one of many examples of what is called "eclipsing binary". The name is pretty self explanatory: the stars revolve around each other, and the orbital plane is so close together in the line of sight of the observer, that they eclipse each other alternately. The brightness variation of the system will depend of the luminosity of the star that is visible during each of the cycles.

Answer: Lionrock

Also listed as HD 212771, this is a subgiant star, having five times the radius of the Sun and 1,56 times its mass.

It hosts a massive planet orbiting around it. The common names for both the star and the planet ("Lionrock" and "Victoriapeak") were selected at the 2019 NameExoWorlds campaign, being proposed by Hong Kong and based on two famous mountains located on the island.

Answer: Adriaan van Maanen

Van Maanen discovered this star in 1917, and it was later named after him. This type of star doesn't have a source of energy, since fusion doesn't take place in them. As a result, they are very faint, and extremely dense. They are thought to be the final evolutionary state of stars that doesn't have a mass high enough to turn into a black hole or a neutron star.
Van Maanen's Star is not part of the outline of Pisces constellation, but it's located within its boundaries.
Although the nearest known white dwarf is Sirius B, it's actually part of a binary star system, while Van Maanen's is a single star.