![]() ![]() It’s still a very long distance, and we don’t have the technology to go and visit yet, but Tau Ceti is on the stars that are closest to our own solar system. Mira is a binary stellar system with Mira A being the variable component, and Mira B is a white dwarf companion. Mira – the first Mira variable star discovered. This red giant is unstable and finishing its life before it sheds its nebulae and becomes a white dwarf. Menkar is derived from the word “nostrils” in Arabic. Menkar – also called Alpha Ceti, has an apparent magnitude of 2.54 and is approximately 249 light-years away. ![]() Diphda is an orange giant, getting ready to become a red giant. This star is the brightest in the Ceti constellation, with an apparent magnitude of 2.04. The Cetus constellation contains some interesting stars:ĭiphda – also called Deneb Kaitos, or “the whale’s tail” – is formally called Beta Ceti. They are all red giants that are in the last stages of their lives before they transform into white dwarfs. Mira was the first of these stars ever discovered.Ĭalled Mira variables, there are now more than 7,000 identified. These changes in luminosity were enough to make David Fabricius wonder if Mira had blipped out of existence. Mira undergoes a process over 330 days in which it grows from an apparent magnitude of 2.0 to 5.0 or even lower. He assumed at first it underwent a supernova – but then it reappeared. He was charting Jupiter and needed reference points, and he realized that a star was becoming gradually brighter before blinking out of existence entirely. Technically, the person who gets the credit for noticing Mira first is David Fabricius, an astronomer who started writing about it in 1596. Mira A, the red giant, is a pulsating variable star, the first ever discovered. Mira (Latin for wonderful), also called Omicron Ceti, is a binary stellar system with a red giant and white dwarf. The Cetus constellation is home to the first variable star ever discovered. You will be able to view it if you are anywhere from 70 to -90 degrees.Ĭetus is one of the larger constellations in the sky – the 4th largest – and it occupies 1231 square degrees of space or about 3% of the night sky. You can find it to the west of Taurus, or the east of Aquarius. The stars in Cetus pop out and are easily visible.Ĭetus is most easily seen rising just above the horizon in the early evening in fall and winter. It’s not that hard to find Cetus, since it lies in a region of the sky without many other stars. How to find the Cetus constellation in the night sky The Cetus constellation also borders some non-water constellations, like Aries, Fornax, Sculptor, and Taurus. ![]() Like the whale, Cetus is big enough to join together 3 other watery constellations – Pisces (the fish), Aquarius (the water bearer), and Eridanus (the river). When the hero Perseus came along, he saw Andromeda’s problem and helped her by slaying the Cetus monster when it came to kill her. The king and queen had no other choice, so they chained their daughter to the rocks by the ocean when the tide was low so that the Cetus monster would eat her. When King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia went to an oracle asking him what to do about this problem, he told them that the only solution was to sacrifice their daughter, Andromeda, to Poseidon by offering her to the Cetus monster. Today, the Cetus is commonly pictured as a kind of whale, but at the time, the Cetus was described as a sea monster or sea serpent, and alternately as having the head of a boar and the body of a river dolphin. He sent a gigantic sea monster, the Cetus, to destroy the kingdom. ![]() This made the god of the sea, Poseidon, really angry. The most common story of the Cetus monster started when Queen Cassiopeia claimed that she and her daughter Andromeda were Nereids or sea nymphs. Cetus is named after a sea monster.Īlthough the Cetus constellation is usually called “the whale”, the original root of the word Cetus dates back to an ancient Greek classical myth about a sea monster called Cetus, that both Perseus and Heracles needed to kill. Constellations, the Sun, and Black Holes Cetus Constellation Facts, Myth, Location and Stars 1. ![]()
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