Capella
star in the constellation Auriga
Capella is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga. It has the Bayer designation α Aurigae, which is Latinised to Alpha Aurigae and abbreviated Alpha Aur or α Aur. Capella is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega. A prominent object in the northern sky, it is circumpolar to observers north of 44°N. Its name meaning "little goat" in Latin, Capella depicted the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus in classical mythology. Capella is relatively close, at 42.9 light-years (13.2 parsecs). It is one of the brightest X-ray sources in the sky, thought to come primarily from the corona of Capella Aa.
Although it appears to be a single star to the naked eye, Capella is actually a quadruple star system organized in two binary pairs stars: the primary pair Capella Aa and Capella Ab; and the secondary pair Capella H and Capella L. The primaries are two bright-yellow giant stars, both of which are around 2.5 Solar masses. The secondary pair, are around 10,000 astronomical units (AU) from the first. They are faint, small and relatively cool red dwarfs.
Capella Aa and Capella Ab have exhausted their core hydrogen, and cooled and expanded, moving off the main sequence.
“Capella” enters the record as star in the constellation Auriga. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Capella, star and constellation can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Capella” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Capella, star and constellation provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12970. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Capella”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Capella primary sources, Capella archive and Capella research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Capella”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Capella” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.