Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Answer to Question 143

A143: A constellation is a group of stars that, when seen from Earth, form a pattern. The stars in the sky are divided into 88 constellations.


The brightest constellation is Crux (the Southern Cross). The constellation with the greatest number of visible stars in it is Centaurus (the Centaur - with 101 stars). The largest constellation is Hydra (The Water Snake) which extends over 3.158% of the sky.

There are also asterisms, smaller apparent star patterns within a constellation, like the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major), the Little Dipper (in Ursa Minor), Keystone (in Hercules), and the Pleiades (in Taurus).

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