Triangulum Constellation: Facts & Myths

Constellations are mysterious and beautiful. One such constellation is Triangulum, and it is located in the Northern Sky, and its meaning is”the triangle.”  It is among one of the Greek constellations and was cataloged by Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer in the second century. There are no magnitude stars of it. There are three brightest stars having a shape of a long narrow triangle.  It is also home to Messier 33 and Triangulum galaxy which is the best known and nearest galaxy in the night sky.

It is the 78th assemblage of stars in size that occupies 132 square degrees area.  It is present in the 1st quadrant of NQ1 and can be seen +90 degree & – 60-degree latitudes. Pisces, Aries, Andromeda, and Perseus are its neighboring stars. Triangulum is the member of the Perseus family along with Auriga, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Pegasus, Lacerta, and Cetus. Triangulum has a star, and it is confirmed that it also has a planet and it contains Messier 33which is Messier object.  There is one brightest star in the constellation which is called Beta Trianguli having a magnitude of approx. 3.00.  It is not having meteor showers associated with Triangulum gatherings.

Myth about Triangulum

The Greeks used to know this gathering of stars as Deltoton, which was after its shape as it resembled the delta which is a Greek letter.  According to the Eratosthenes this constellation represented River Nile Delta.  Then according to the Hyginus, this constellation was said to be the Sicily Island. Sicilia was among the early names that were given to the constellation. The reason was that Ceres (the patron goddess of Sicily Island) said that they begged to have a bigger planet (Jupiter) so that the island can be situated in the sky.

Triangulum major stars

Beta trianguli

It is the biggest among all in the constellation and is present at the magnitude of3.00 and is approx. 127 light years from the earth.  It is a massive star with white light and stellar classification.  It is a spectroscopic star having components which are separated by astronomical units (<5).  This star is also a source of enormous radiation which suggests that it has a dust ring that orbits around it.

Alpha trianguli

It is the 2nd brightest star and is having magnitude (3.42) and is 63.3 light years from the earth.  It completes the orbit at 1.736 days, and it is believed that this system is about 1.6 billion old.  A giant star is a primary component, and its central star rushes resulting in the oblate spheroid shape.

Gamma trianguli

It is the 3rd brightest star and is present at the magnitude (4.01) and is at a distance of112.3light years from earth. It is a white star and having 2.7 times sun mass and twice the radius of the sun. This star is thirty-three times brighter than the sun.

There are two more stars in the Triangulum constellation which are delta and lota trianguli. Delta trianguli is 35.2 light years from earth, and lota trianguli is 305 light years.