Quote:
Originally posted by ehowe
Actually, if I'm correct (My japanese/history is a bit rusty), But I beleive Subaru, in Japanese, is actually a star cluster, of six stars, hence the symbol... And the Alcyone is a particularly bright star in this cluster... The Alcyone is in reference to the racing line, the Subaru XT and XT-6 were both Alcyone's, as is the SVX... The Impreza is another star from this cluster, FYI. A little bit of useless trivia. =)
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Actually, the Subaru logo is that of the constellation "Pleiades," using only six of the "seven sisters" of the "Pleiades" to represent the merging of six separate entities to form Fuji Heavy Industries. Alcyone, indeed is the brightest of the stars of the Pleides constellation.
In Greek mythology, the Pleiades represent the seven daughters of Atlas and of Pleione, the daughter of Oceanus. Their names were Electra, Maia, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope. According to some versions of the myth, they committed suicide from grief at the fate of their father, Atlas, or at the death of their sisters, the Hyades. Other versions made them the attendants of Artemis, goddess of wildlife and of hunting, who were pursued by the giant hunter Orion, but were rescued by the gods and changed into doves. After their death, or metamorphosis, they were transformed into stars, but are still pursued across the sky by the constellation Orion.
As for the constellation references, the Pleiades is a loose cluster of 400 to 500 stars, about 415 light-years from the solar system in the direction of the constellation Taurus. The stars are about 1 light-year apart, on the average, and photographs show them to be surrounded by a nebulosity that shines by their reflected light. The cluster was named by the ancient Greeks after the "Seven Sisters" of mythology. Observers have claimed to be able to see with the naked eye as many as 12 of the stars in the cluster.
And who said we couldn't learn anything on this board.
