Look at the stars at night.
You can see a shape. It looks like a small triangle. It is in the far south sky. This shape helps us find it. Do you like looking at stars?
Look at the night sky in the far south.
You can find a small shape. It looks like a triangle.
This shape is made of three bright stars. One star is a big orange star. The other two stars are white. This pattern helps people find it. Some people see it as a tool. Others see it as a snake tail. It is a very special part of the sky.
Look far into the southern sky. You will see a small shape. It is a constellation called Triangulum Australe. Its name means "the southern triangle."
The name comes from three bright stars. They form a shape like a triangle. The brightest star is called Atria. It is a big orange star. Atria is 5,500 times brighter than our Sun.
The other two stars are white. They complete the triangle pattern.
Many people have looked at these stars. The Wardaman people see a snake tail. They call it the Rainbow Serpent. In the sky, it helps bring rain. This group of stars also sits near the Milky Way. This is our home galaxy. You can find deep-sky objects there too. One is a group of stars called NGC 6025. Another is a cloud of gas called a planetary nebula. Far away, two galaxies are crashing into each other. We call this pair ESO 69-6.
This event pulls long tails of stars out of the galaxies.
Triangulum Australe is a small constellation in the far southern sky. Its name is Latin for "the southern triangle." This name describes the shape of its three brightest stars. They form a pattern that is almost equilateral. This constellation is hard to see from Europe. It is, however, circumpolar for most people in the southern hemisphere. This means it stays above the horizon all night.
The triangle is made of three very special stars. The brightest is Alpha Trianguli Australis, which people call Atria. Atria is a huge orange giant star. It is 5,500 times more luminous than our Sun. If you put it in our solar system, it would reach near Venus. The other two stars are white. These are named Beta and Gamma Trianguli Australis. They are main sequence stars that complete the triangle shape.
Many people have studied these stars for a long time. An Italian navigator named Amerigo Vespucci saw these stars in the early 1500s. He wrote about a triangle in his book Mundus Novus in 1504. Later, Petrus Plancius put the stars on a globe in 1589. He called it Triangulus Antarcticus. Johann Bayer gave it its current name in 1603. In 1756, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted the brighter stars. He gave them letters like Alpha and Beta.
There are many interesting things to find in this area. The constellation sits within the Milky Way galaxy. You can find an open cluster called NGC 6025 there. It has about 30 stars in it. There is also a planetary nebula called NGC 5979. Far away, you can see two galaxies crashing together. This pair is called ESO 69-6. Their gravity pulls long tails of stars out of them.
Different cultures see these stars in different ways. The Wardaman people of Australia see a Rainbow Serpent. They think the stars are the tail of the snake. This serpent helps bring the wet season rains in November. In Brazil, the triangle is on the national flag. It represents the three states of the South Region.
This shows how the stars connect to people on Earth.
Triangulum Australe is a small constellation located in the far Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name is Latin for "the southern triangle." This name refers to the acute, almost equilateral pattern formed by its three brightest stars. Because it sits so far south, it is not visible from Europe. However, it is circumpolar for most people in the southern hemisphere. This means the constellation stays above the horizon throughout the entire night.
The constellation is composed of several distinct types of stars. The most prominent is Alpha Trianguli Australis, also known as Atria. Atria is a second-magnitude orange giant star. It is incredibly luminous, shining 5,500 times more brightly than our Sun. If Atria were placed at the center of our Solar System, its diameter would reach nearly as far as the orbit of Venus. The other two stars that complete the triangle are Beta and Gamma Trianguli Australis. These are white main sequence stars that provide the structural shape of the constellation.
Beyond the primary triangle, the constellation contains many other complex stellar systems. For example, Beta Trianguli Australis is actually a double star system. It consists of a primary F-type main-sequence star and a much fainter companion. Zeta Trianguli Australis is a spectroscopic binary, which is a system where two stars orbit each other. This pair orbits once every 13 days. Some stars in this region are also variable stars. These are stars that change in brightness over time. For instance, the star EK Trianguli Australis is a dwarf nova. It consists of a white dwarf and a donor star that orbit each other every 1.5 hours. During outbursts, the white dwarf pulls matter from its companion into an accretion disc.
Humans have been documenting these stars for centuries. In the early 16th century, the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci explored the New World. He created a catalogue of southern stars for King Manuel I of Portugal. Although that catalogue is lost, Vespucci wrote descriptions of a triangle in his 1504 book, Mundus Novus. Later, in 1589, the astronomer Petrus Plancius depicted the stars on a celestial globe. He called it Triangulus Antarcticus. In 1603, Johann Bayer published the Uranometria. This atlas gave the constellation its current name. In 1756, the astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted the brighter stars and assigned them Bayer designations, such as Alpha and Beta.
Different cultures have viewed these stars through various lenses. The Wardaman people of Australia's Northern Territory see the stars as the tail of the Rainbow Serpent. This serpent stretches from near the Crux constellation toward Scorpius. In their tradition, the serpent nudges Lightning in October to bring the wet season rains in November. In Europe, some saw the stars as the Three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The German astronomer Johann Bode even gave the constellation the alternate name Libella. He viewed the stars as a surveyor's level, similar to how Lacaille viewed the constellation as a set square.
While the constellation is located within the Milky Way, it does not have many prominent deep-sky objects. One notable feature is the open cluster NGC 6025. This cluster contains about 30 stars ranging from the 7th to 9th magnitude. There is also a planetary nebula known as NGC 5979, which appears blue-green under high magnification. Further away, one can find the spiral galaxy NGC 5938.
Even more distant is the pair of merging galaxies called ESO 69-6. These galaxies are located about 600 million light-years away. Their gravitational interaction has dragged their contents out into long, visible tails.
Triangulum Australe also holds a significant place in modern geography and physics. The constellation's stars are part of the Milky Way, which is part of the Laniakea Supercluster. The Great Attractor, which is the gravitational center of this supercluster, straddles Triangulum Australe and the neighboring constellation Norma. On Earth, the triangle shape is culturally significant in Brazil. It appears on the national flag to symbolize the three states of the South Region. This connection shows how ancient star patterns continue to influence modern identity and scientific study.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (3)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🔬 Go deeper
More advanced topics to explore
🪜 Step back
Simpler topics to build understanding
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.