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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2020)
Wednesday, January 1, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Stars over Sisters By Paola Mendoza Correspondent Though Auriga, The Charioteer, isn9t the most recognizable constellation in the sky, it is one of the bigger ones. It is the 21st largest constellation in the sky, occupying 657 square degrees of the celestial sphere. This star pattern is well up in the northeast- ern sky in the early eve- nings during January, and is nearly overhead at 10 p.m. local time by mid-month. PHOTO BY EMIL IVANOV Auriga is bordered by M37 is a rich open star cluster located 4,511 light-years away in the Camelopardalis to the north, constellation of Auriga. Lynx to the east, Taurus and Gemini to the south, and her hand in marriage they involving his future wife. Perseus to the west. had to defeat Oenomaus When the wheels came off Auriga9s brightest star is in a chariot race. The king his chariot during the race, Capella, sixth brightest of all had already killed eigh- Oenomaus was dragged the fixed luminaries in our teen suitors because he was to his death, thus allowing sky. Although it appears to fearful of a prophecy that Pelops and Hippodamia to be a single star to the naked claimed he would be killed marry. But Pelops reneged eye, Capella consists of a by his son-in-law. But when on his part of the bargain, quadruple star system orga- Pelops, son of Tantalus, killing Myrtilus instead by nized in two binary pairs. entered the race, the gods throwing him into the sea. These stars are so close to decided to intervene. Pelops His father Hermes then one another that not even the was given a golden chariot placed him among the stars largest telescope on earth that would be pulled by a as Auriga. can separate them; their winged golden horse from At 11:48 p.m. on January existence is derived through Poseidon. To further ensure 4, the earth will reach peri- spectroscopic analysis. victory, Pelops arranged for helion, its closest approach Capella is 42.2 light-years Myrtilus to tamper with the to the sun, at 91,398,199 away and shines at a magni- wheels of the king9s char- tude of 0.08. See STARS on page 23 iot in exchange for favors Three of the finest open star clusters in the sky are found in Auriga, and all have Messier designations. In order of decreasing bright- ness, they are M37, M36 and M38. Besides being the brightest of the three clus- ters, M37 is also the richest. Nineteenth-century astrono- mer William Henry Smyth, officer of the Royal Navy, described M37 as follows: <A magnificent object, with whole field being strewed as it were with sparking gold dust&it resolves into infi- nitely minute points of lucid light&= The cluster is esti- mated to be no older than 550 million years and lies at a distance of some 4,511 light-years. Sometimes referred to as the Pinwheel Cluster, M36 is a much younger object (25 million years old) than M37; its distance is about 4,340 light-years. Age-wise, M38 falls between M36 and M37, believed to be about 250 million years old and located approximately 3,480 light-years away. All three of these objects are invisible to the naked eye and require optical aid to be seen. In certain accounts of sky lore, Auriga is referred to as Myrtilus, who was the son of Hermes and charioteer of Oenomaus, king of Pisa in Greece. The king had a daughter, Hippodamia, who attracted many suitors, but in order for them to win 15 Two Outlaws earn silver on the mat Two Outlaws got silver medals for Christmas. The Outlaws wrestling team took 11 wrestlers to the Adrian Irwin Wrestling Tournament at Mountain View High School December 21-22. Leading the team scores at the end was Mountain View High with 453.5 points, Burns High was second with 220.0 points, La Pine took third with 208 points, Nyssa High earned fourth with 193.5 and fifth was Ridgeview with 183.5. The Outlaws ended in ninth place with 94.5 points. <The Outlaws had a great first day at the tournament, Head Coach John Downs told The Nugget. <Every Outlaw wrestler was considered var- sity and wrestled in the var- sity competition, even if we had two in a weight class. Everyone was able to earn their way to the second day of competition. This doesn9t happen very often when a team can accomplish having everyone still in the tourna- ment on the second day. The team wrestled very hard and we had some great matches.= The Outlaws had two wrestlers in the 138-pound weight class, sophomore See WRESTLE on page 18 Quality Truck-mounted CARPET CLEANING Quality Cleaning 16 years in Reasonable Prices Sisters! 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