Stargazing

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Updated:Monday May 12 2008,2:00 ADT- Saint John Airport

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This Week in the Sky

The Tale of Three Giants

Kite-shaped constellation Bootes, greets springtime stargazers high in the southeast evening skies. Making it easy to spot is the lead star of the Herdsman - brilliant orange-coloured Arcturus. An old stellar heavyweight, it is the 4th brightest star in the entire night sky. This giant ball of burning gas is almost 30 times larger than our own Sun and lies 36 light years away.

Meanwhile just to the right of Arcturus is the fainter 37 light year Eta Bootis. Twice the size, and only half the age of our Sun, Eta is burning up its fuel quickly and entering its final years of life. Soon it will swell and become a monster star over a hundred times the size of our Sun.

Further out to the right and fainter still is Tau Bootis. In 1995 Canada's first space telescope MOST, found evidence of a large planet around this 50 light year distant star.

Four times larger than our Jupiter, this world is actually towing its own sun. Astronomers say that the planet's gravity has forced Tau to rotate so it always keeps the same face to the planet.

- Andrew Fazekas