| a fleece of pure gold, kept at Colchis by King Ae?tes from whom it was stolen by Jason and the Argonauts with the help of Ae?tes's daughter, Medea |
| the god of fertility, wine, and drama; Bacchus |
| Centaur (sěn'tôr') Pronunciation Key
Any of a group of icy bodies similar to both asteroids and comets, orbiting the Sun in elliptical paths mostly in the region between Saturn and Neptune. Centaurs range in diameter from around 100 to 400 km (62 to 248 mi) and are believed to be Kuiper belt objects that have escaped into the vicinity of the gas-giant planets. Centaurs are considered to have unstable orbits, and gravitational encounters with the large outer planets could send them into the inner solar system or alternatively could eject them from the solar system into interstellar space. Chiron, the first such body to be classified as a Centaur, was discovered in 1977. |