Ara
Welcome to the Ara Page!
Ara is a small constellation located in the southern sky. Its name means “the altar” in Latin.
The constellation represents the altar used by Zeus and other Greek gods to swear a vow of allegiance before they went to war against Cronus and the Titans. In another Greek myth, Ara represents the altar of King Lycaon of Arcadia.
Ara was one of the 88 constellations listed by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century.
FACTS
Ara is one of the smaller constellations (63rd in size), with an area of 237 square degrees. It lies in the third quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ3) and can be seen at latitudes between +25° and -90°.
The neighboring constellations are Apus, Corona Australis, Norma, Pavo, Scorpius, Telescopium, and Triangulum Australe.
Ara has seven stars with known exoplanets: Mu Arae (four planets), Gliese 676 (binary system with four planets), HD 154857 (one confirmed and one suspected planet), Gliese 674, HD 152079, HD 154672 and HD 156411
Ara contains two stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 and three stars located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in the constellation is Beta Arae. The nearest star, Gliese 674 (spectral class M3V), lies at a distance of 14.80 light years from Earth. There are no meteor showers linked to Ara. The constellation does not contain any Messier objects.
Ara belongs to the Hercules family of constellations, together with Aquila, Centaurus, Corona Australis, Corvus, Crater, Crux, Cygnus, Hercules, Hydra, Lupus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Sagitta, Scutum, Serpens, Sextans, Triangulum Australe, and Vulpecula.
The constellation contains several notable deep sky objects: the Stingray Nebula, the open clusters Westerlund 1 (Ara Cluster) and NGC 6193, the globular clusters NGC 6397, NGC 6352 and NGC 6362, the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6300, the planetary nebula NGC 6326 and the pre-planetary Water Lily Nebula.
MYTHOLOGY
There are several myths associated with the constellation. In one of them, Ara represents the altar on which Zeus and other gods vowed to defeat the Titans and overthrow Cronus, who ruled the universe. Cronus was one of the 12 Titans who had deposed his father Uranus, the previous ruler.When a prophecy said that the same fate would befall Cronus and he would be defeated by one of his own children, to prevent it from happening, he swallowed all his children – Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon – all of them future gods and goddesses. When the youngest child, Zeus, was born, his mother Rhea hid him in Crete and gave Cronus a stone to swallow, telling him the stone was Zeus.
When Zeus grew up, he made Cronus vomit his brothers and sisters. Once freed, they swore to overthrow Cronus and the Titans. The war between the gods and the Titans lasted a decade and the gods won in the end. Zeus became the god of the sky, Poseidon became the god of the sea, and Hades the ruler of the underworld. Zeus placed the altar among the stars to commemorate the gods’ victory.
In another story, Ara represents the altar of Lycaon, the king of Arcadia who decided to test Zeus by serving him a meal of a dismembered child, and ater tried to kill the god while he slept. Zeus, enraged, transformed Lycaon into a wolf and killed his 50 sons with lightning bolts. In one version of the tale, the sacrificed child was Arcas, the son of Zeus and Lycaon’s daughter Callisto.