Legend

Aries was a magical ram who could speak, think and fly. The god Hermes gave it to two children, Helle and Phrixus, who wanted to escape their evil stepmother. Helle fell off during the escape, but Phrixus made it to safety and sacrificed Aries to show his thanks. He gave Aries' fleece to King Aeetes, who set Draco the dragon to guard it. Eventually, Aries' Golden Fleece was stolen by Jason and the Argonauts.

Aries' brightest star is Hamal, which means "the lamb." It's one of the few stars that has had its apparent size measured. Most stars are so far away they appear as just a point of light, but astronomers have measured the size of Hamal to be 0.00680 arcseconds. That's the same size as a penny would seem to be if you held it 60 kilometres away!

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