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Draco (constellation)

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A beautiful night sky photo showing the constellation Draco, the dragon, formed by stars.

Draco is a beautiful pattern of stars in the night sky. Its name means “dragon” in Latin. People have seen Draco as a group of stars for thousands of years.

Draco lives in the far northern sky. Because it is close to the north celestial pole, it can be seen all year long from places far north on Earth. This makes Draco a special friend to anyone looking up at the stars.

One important star in Draco is called Thuban. Long ago, Thuban was the closest star to Earth’s north pole. Because Earth moves, Thuban will become the north pole star again in the far future.

Draco has many interesting things far away in space. One of these is the Cat's Eye Nebula, a glowing ring of gas that looks like a beautiful eye.

In old stories, Draco was seen as a dragon. One tale says a goddess placed the dragon in the sky after it was defeated. Another story tells of a dragon that guarded golden apples. These stories show how people have imagined Draco for a very long time.

Images

An old astronomical chart showing the constellations Draco and Ursa Minor from a historical star guide.
The Draco galaxy triplet, showing three beautiful galaxies captured by an amateur astronomer through a telescope.
A stunning space photo showing a bright star shining in front of a distant galaxy named PGC 39058, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
An illustrated dragon from a 13th-century medieval manuscript, showing detailed artwork from an old book.
An artist's impression of HE 1523-0901, one of the oldest known stars in our Galaxy, located about 7500 light years from Earth.

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Draco (constellation), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.