There is sort of... There isn't a sort of astrophysics relevance to constellations other than helping to know where things are. Because the two stars could be in completely different clusters. If you don't spend a lot of time thinking about the three-dimensional nature of space, it is really easy to assume that this tableau of pictures we see in our night sky is made up of stars that are all physically clustered together. So the stars might look close to each other in 2D, but they might be very distant from each other in that third dimension.
Is it time to update the constellations? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Matt Kirshen dive into astrophysics, folklore, and our ancient connection to the stars with astrophysicist Moiya McTier, Ph.D.
NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free.
Thanks to our Patrons Viny Adomonis, Thomas Blankenhorn, Weston Daniel L., Lauren Scott, and Aaryan Kukar for supporting us this week.
Photo Credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.