Mizar

stars · binary stars · Big Dipper

Part of the Big Dipper. Mizar is one of the bright stars you can spot in the handle of the Big Dipper asterism, a pattern of stars in the constellation Ursa Major. It's the second-brightest star in the Big Dipper and easy to find in the night sky.

A naked eye double. Mizar has a fainter companion star called Alcor right next to it, and you can actually see both stars separately with just your eyes, no telescope needed. This makes them one of the most famous double star pairs in the sky.

Four stars in one. Mizar itself is not just one star but a quadruple star system, meaning four stars are orbiting around each other in space. This makes it even more special than it first appears to our eyes.

Pretty far away. The Mizar and Alcor system is about 83 light-years from Earth, which means the light we see from these stars today left them 83 years ago. They're part of a group of stars called the Ursa Major Moving Group that are traveling through space together.