The lion springs high across the sky on spring evenings. Leo is led by Regulus, one of the brighter stars in the night sky. It represents the lion’s heart or one of his front paws. And it really is an impressive star – bigger, brighter, and heavier than the Sun.
The star at the lion’s tail is no slouch, either. Denebola also is bigger, brighter, and heavier than the Sun. It spins much faster than the Sun – so fast that it bulges outward at the equator. And it’s billions of years younger than the Sun. Because of its greater mass, though, it will live a much shorter life than the Sun will.
Regulus and Denebola both played important roles in the skylore of ancient cultures. In Persia, for example, Regulus was one of the “guardians of heaven” – four bright stars along the Sun’s path across the sky. Each guardian was thought to reign over its own quadrant of the sky.
Denebola served as a calendar marker. Ulugh Beg, a 15th-century astronomer and mathematician, called the star Al Sarfah – “the changer.” The name indicated that the weather changed as the star moved across the sky. It first appeared in the dawn sky around the middle of September, as the summer heat abated – a change in seasons pulled along by the tail of the lion.
Denebola stands a third of the way up the eastern sky as night falls, well to the lower left of the lion’s bright heart.
We’ll talk about a star in the lion’s head tomorrow.
Script by Damond Benningfield