What is "hyades"

Hyades \Hy"a*des\, Hyads \Hy"ads\, n. pl. [L. Hyades, Gr. ?.] (Astron.) A cluster of five stars in the face of the constellation Taurus, supposed by the ancients to indicate the coming of rainy weather when they rose with the sun.

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea.
--Tennyson.

Hyades \Hyades\ n. (Greek mythology) The seven daughters of Atlas and half-sisters of the Pleiades; they nurtured the infant Dionysus and Zeus placed them among the stars as a reward.

star cluster in constellation Taurus, late 14c., from Greek Hyades, popularly explained as "rain-bringers" (from hyein "to rain"), because wet weather supposedly began coincidentally with their heliacal rising, but in fact probably from hys "swine" (the popular Latin word for them was Suculae "little pigs"). Grimm ("Teutonic Mythology") lists the Anglo-Saxon glosses of Hyades as Raedgastran, Raedgasnan, Redgaesrum.

The Hyades (; Greek Ὑάδες, also known as Melotte 25 or Collinder 50) is the nearest open cluster to the Solar System and one of the best-studied star clusters. The Hipparcos satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, and infrared color–magnitude diagram fitting have been used to establish a distance of ~153 ly (47 pc) to the cluster center. The distances established by these three independent methods agree, thereby making the Hyades an important rung on the cosmic distance ladder. The cluster consists of a roughly spherical group of hundreds of stars sharing the same age, place of origin, chemical content, and motion through space. From the perspective of observers on Earth, the Hyades Cluster appears in the constellation Taurus, where its brightest stars form a "V" shape along with the still brighter red giant Aldebaran. However, Aldebaran is unrelated to the Hyades, as it is located much closer to Earth (hence its apparent brightness) and merely happens to lie along the same line of sight.

The five brightest member stars of the Hyades have all evolved away from the Main Sequence and now lie at the bottom of the giant branch. Four of these stars, with Bayer designations Gamma, Delta 1, Epsilon, and Theta Tauri, form an asterism that is traditionally identified as the head of Taurus the Bull. The other is Zeta 1 Tauri, which lies 2° further south. Epsilon Tauri, known as Ain (the "Bull's Eye"), has a gas giant exoplanet candidate, the first planet to be found in any open cluster.

The age of the Hyades is estimated to be about 625 million years. The cluster core, where stars are most densely packed, has a radius of 2.7 parsecs (corresponding to a diameter of 17.6 light years), and the cluster's tidal radius is 10 parsecs (corresponding to a diameter of 65 light years). However, about one-third of confirmed member stars have been observed well outside this boundary, in the cluster's extended halo; these stars are probably in the process of escaping from its gravitational influence.

Hyades may refer to:

• Hyades (band)
• Hyades (mythology)
• Hyades (star cluster), an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus

In Greek mythology, the Hyades (; , popularly "the rainy ones", but probably from Greek hys, i.e. "swine") are a sisterhood of nymphs that bring rain.

The Hyades were daughters of Atlas (by either Pleione or Aethra, one of the Oceanides) and sisters of Hyas in most tellings, although one version gives their parents as Hyas and Boeotia. The Hyades are sisters to the Pleiades and the Hesperides.

The main myth concerning them is envisioned to account for their collective name and to provide an etiology for their weepy raininess: Hyas was killed in a hunting accident and the Hyades wept from their grief. They were changed into a cluster of stars, the Hyades, set in the head of Taurus.

Their number varies from three in the earliest sources to fifteen in the late ones. The names are also variable, according to the mythographer, and include:

• Aesyle
• Ambrosia
• Cleeia
• Coronis
• Eudora
• Pedile
• Phaeo or Phaeote
• Phyto
• Polyxo

Servius gives a set of five names that doesn't match any other known list: Pytho, Synecho, Baccho, Cardie, Niseis.

Additionally, Thyone and Prodice were supposed to be daughters of Hyas by Aethra, and have been added to the group of stars.

The Greeks believed that the heliacal rising and setting of the Hyades star cluster were always attended with rain, hence the association of the Hyades (sisters of Hyas) and the Hyades (daughters of ocean) with the constellation of the Hyades (rainy ones).

The Hyades are also thought to have been the tutors of Dionysus, in some tellings of the latter's infancy, and as such are equated with the Nysiads, the nymphs who are also believed to have cared for Dionysus, as well as with other reputed nurses of the god — the Lamides, the Dodonides and the nymphs of Naxos. Some sources relate that they were subject to aging, but Dionysus, to express his gratitude for having raised him, asked Medea to restore their youth.

Hyades is a thrash metal band from Busto Arsizio, Italy, formed in 1996.