Ursa Major

Messier 81, Bode's Galaxy, in Ursa Major, the sharpest image ever taken of it by Hubble. A grand-design spiral about 12 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

Callisto, condemned to circle the pole

In Greek myth Ursa Major is Callisto, a nymph and companion of the huntress Artemis. Zeus fell in love with her, and when his wife Hera discovered it, she turned Callisto into a bear in a jealous rage. Years later Callisto's own son Arcas, out hunting, nearly killed the bear without knowing it was his mother. Zeus swept them both into the sky to spare them, Callisto as the Great Bear and Arcas as the nearby Little Bear (or, in some tellings, the herdsman Boötes).

Hera was not finished. She persuaded the sea gods never to let the bears bathe in the ocean, which is the mythic reason these constellations are circumpolar: from northern latitudes they wheel endlessly around the pole and never sink below the horizon to rest in the sea.

Ursa Major at a glance

Pointers, a horse and rider, and a spinning group

• Dubhe and Merak — the Pointers. The two stars at the end of the Dipper's bowl. A line through them, extended upward, leads straight to Polaris, the North Star.
• Mizar and Alcor. The middle star of the handle is really a pair: bright Mizar with faint Alcor beside it, "the horse and rider." Spotting both with the naked eye was once a traditional test of good vision. A telescope splits Mizar itself into two, and it is a multiple-star system in all.
• Alioth. The brightest star in the constellation, at the base of the handle.
• The Ursa Major Moving Group. Five of the Dipper's seven stars actually travel through the galaxy together, a loose cluster of stars born from the same cloud, all drifting in the same direction.

Galaxies above the bear's back

One of humanity's oldest shared pictures

Remarkably, cultures separated by oceans and ages both saw a bear in these stars, from ancient Greece to many Native American nations, which some scholars think points to a shared story tens of thousands of years old. Others saw different things in the same seven bright stars: a plough or a wagon across much of Europe, a saucepan in France, the seven sages (Saptarishi) in India. In North America the Dipper was the Drinking Gourd, sung about as a guide that pointed enslaved people north toward freedom. Few patterns have carried so many human meanings.

Constellation data sheet

More stories in the stars

Ursa Major is one of many constellations carrying a Greek myth. Explore the connected sagas and figures on the Greek mythology hub.

Greek Myths Hub · Polaris & Ursa Minor · Draco · Cassiopeia · Orion · Whirlpool Galaxy

All Astronomy Notes · Polaris · Whirlpool Galaxy · Draco · Greek Mythology in the Night Sky