BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Taurus the Bull *new*

In Greek myth Taurus is Zeus's guise for the seduction of Europa. Yet the bull's red eye still glares at Orion in an enmity created long before the rise of ancient Greece. Today's Taurus is a constellation memorable for its two beautiful star clusters and one of the sky's most amazing objects.

Taurus the Bull

Lambda Tauri in the constellation Taurus isn't a single star, but rather a triple star. Two of the stars form an eclipsing binary, as shown in this diagram. They're both brighter than the Sun. Since we see them nearly edge on, each in turn eclipses the other one, so we see what looks like one variable star. The third star is smaller than the Sun and orbits the binary.