Capella is the brightest star in the constellationAuriga, the sixth brightest in the night sky and the third brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus and Vega. Its name is derived from the diminutive of the Latincapra "goat", hence "little goat". Capella also bears the Bayer designationAlphaAurigae (often abbreviated to α Aurigae, α Aur or Alpha Aur) Although it appears to be a single star to the naked eye, it is actually a star system of four stars in two binary pairs. The first pair consists of two bright, large type-Ggiant stars, both with a radius around 10 times that of the Sun and two and a half times its mass, in close orbit around each other. Designated Capella Aa and Capella Ab, these two stars are thought to be cooling and expanding on their way to becoming red giants. The second pair, around 10,000 astronomical units from the first, consists of two faint, small and relatively cool red dwarfs. They are designated Capella Ha and Capella Hb, the stars labelled Capella C through to G are actually unrelated stars in the same visual field.[11][12] The Capella system is relatively close, at only 42.2 light-years (12.9 pc) from Earth
