cluster of several hundred stars in the zodiacal constellation Taurus. As seen from Earth, the bright star Aldebaran appears to be a member of the cluster, but in fact Aldebaran is much closer to the Earth than the Hyades’ distance of about 150 light-years. Five genuine members of the group are visible to the unaided eye. Their name (Greek: “the rainy ones”) is derived from the ancient association of spring rain with the season of their heliacal (near dawn) rising.
Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.
If you think a reference to this article on "Hyades (astronomy)" will enhance your Web site,
blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article,
and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.
You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.
We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.
Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.