Amateur astronomers can easily find the so-called water region in the night sky. Pisces, Aquarius "live" here, Eridanus "flows". The constellation Cetus is also located here. This celestial drawing occupies a fairly large area. About a hundred stars are available for observation with the naked eye in good weather.
Location
The constellation Cetus for children, however, as well as for adults, is a rather simple object in terms of detection in the sky. It has quite bright and almost all known landmarks - these are Orion and Taurus. They are located not far to the east of the described constellation.
The whale is one of the southern celestial drawings, since only a small part of it lies in the northern hemisphere. The ideal time to observe the constellation is November. At the same time, in our country you can admire it only in the central and southern regions.
Constellation Cetus: legend
Kit is one of the oldest clusters of stars,included in the list of the Greek scientist Ptolemy. Strictly speaking, a mammal imposing in its size, plowing the expanses of the ocean and feeding on plankton, is only indirectly related to such a celestial pattern as the constellation Cetus. The legend associated with him tells of a terrible monster sent by the gods of Olympus to the country of the Ethiopian king Kefei as punishment for his wife's careless words about the unsurpassed beauty of her own. It was this beast, called in the myth a whale or simply a huge fish, that was supposed to eat Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus. Saved the beautiful Perseus, and after a while the gods immortalized all the participants in those events in the sky. Perhaps the constellation Whale for children for the first time becomes interesting after reading this legend. Although sometimes the opposite happens: Greek mythology is filled with new meaning after getting acquainted with the map of the starry sky.
The brightest
The constellation Cetus is remarkable in many ways. For example, not always, that is, not at any time, one can say with certainty which star in its composition is the brightest. The status of the most prominent luminaries usually have Alpha and Beta of the celestial pattern, with the second brighter than the first. However, sometimes the constellation Cetus is illuminated by outbreaks of Mira (Omicron Ceti), but more on that later.
The beta of this cluster of stars is also called Difda or Deneb Kaitos (whale's tail). It is an orange giant entering the last stage of its life cycle. Difda does not greatly exceed the Sun in mass (only three times), but at the same time it shines brighter than it by 145 times and 17 timeslarger in diameter. The orange giant is located at a distance of 96 light years from our planet.
Amazing
Several very interesting objects are part of the constellation Cetus. The stars designated as Omicron and Tau attract the attention of many astronomers, both amateurs and professionals.
Omicron Kita, already mentioned above, is also called Mira, which means "amazing" or "wonderful" in translation. Its discoverer is considered to be David Fabricius, who observed the star in 1596. The luminary belongs to the type of long-period variables, designated in her honor by mirids. Their characteristic feature is a long period of change in luster. In the case of Mira, it averages 331.62 days. Surprising is the range in which its magnitude changes: from 3.4 to 9.3 m. At maximum brightness, Omicron Ceti becomes one of the brightest stars in this celestial pattern, and at minimum it is not visible even with binoculars. At the same time, the boundaries of the range can also shift: Mira can also become a 2.0 m star, that is, the brightest in the constellation. The lower limit, in turn, sometimes shifts to 10.1 m.
Double
Mira is also a multiple star system consisting of two luminaries. The red giant Mira A and its white dwarf companion Mira B are separated by 70 light years and rotate with an orbital period of 400 years. The features described above characterize Omicron Ceti A, but the white dwarf is also among the variable stars. It is surrounded by a disk of matterwhich flows here from the red giant. The substance is supplied unevenly, as a result of which the brilliance of the companion varies from 9.5 to 12 m.
Tail
Mira lives up to its name. After four centuries of observing the star, she managed to surprise astronomers. In 2007, thanks to the GALEX telescope, a gigantic gas and dust tail was discovered near the star: it extends for 13 light years, which is 3 times greater than the distance from the Sun to Proxima Centauri. According to the researchers, Omicron Ceti loses a mass equal to the Earth's every ten years. As a result of the peculiarities of the motion of the star, the matter shed by it is blown back.
Moving the Worlds through outer space is another amazing property of a star. It moves in the opposite direction to most other luminaries. At a speed of about 130 km/s, Mira overcomes a cloud of interstellar gas flying towards her. The consequence of this is the formation of the tail.
Sunlike
Mira is not the only "landmark" adorning the constellation. Tau Ceti is a no less famous luminary of this celestial pattern. After Proxima Centauri and Epsilon Eridani, this is the closest star to us (distance - 12 light years). Its feature is the similarity in many parameters with the Sun. Tau Ceti, like our luminary, is a yellow dwarf that has no companions. It slowly rotates around its axis, which again makes it related to the Sun. Meanwhile, this property of two luminaries is not typical for stars of their spectral type. In the case of the sunslow rotation is explained by the presence of a planetary system, which shared the moment of momentum with the luminary. Until recently, assumptions about the reason for the slow rotation of Tau Ceti existed only at the level of conjecture.
Five planets
The constellation of the whale horoscope, as a rule, deprives of attention as not related to the zodiac. Astronomers, unlike astrologers, believe that with some degree of probability, the stars of Cetus can play a very significant role in the life of all mankind.
In December 2012, the slow rotation of Tau Ceti received an explanation similar to the same property of the Sun: five exoplanets were discovered around the star. Since then, the attention of many specialists in the field of astronomy and astrophysics has been riveted to this system. The fact is that at least two of the discovered exoplanets are potentially habitable, which means they can be habitable.
All five objects are located quite compactly: the orbit of the most distant from the star is closer to Tau Ceti than Mars is to the Sun. The first three exoplanets are therefore unsuitable for protein life: most likely, they are hot deserts, scorched by the rays of the star. Hopes for finding, if not an advanced civilization, then at least primitive organisms are pinned on the last two planets.
Characteristics and conditions
The fourth planet from Tau Ceti is more than three times the mass of the Earth and makes one revolution around the star in 168 days. The last indicator for the next, fifth, object of the systemis approximately 640 days. The data obtained do not allow us to unambiguously determine what the temperature conditions are on these cosmic bodies, however, scientists believe that the climate on the planets may be suitable for the development of life.
The situation, however, is not so simple: the Tau Ceti system, unlike the Solar system, has a huge number of asteroids and comets. According to this indicator, it is ahead of our piece of the Galaxy by about 10 times. Under such conditions, the planets must constantly endure collisions with massive objects comparable to the meteorite that allegedly caused the death of dinosaurs. It is therefore highly likely that life, if it exists on the planets of Tau Ceti, is at a primitive level.
However, all this information still needs to be rechecked and more carefully analyzed. At the same time, the constellation Cetus remains the place where a star with potentially habitable planets shines. Scientists do not give up hope to find evidence of the existence of life on these objects, for which they constantly send a radio telescope towards Tau Ceti in order to pick up possible signals from a civilization located there.
The sky pattern has become a kind of symbol of hope and the future, which is probably why some companies are named after him: for example, the Center "Constellation of the Whale" (Russian Federation, Novosibirsk).
Among the objects of this celestial pattern there are not only interesting stars. A large number of galaxies and nebulae are located here. The entire constellation of Cetus (stars, galaxy clusters and its other elements) representsgreat interest for science. Amateur astronomers do not deprive him of attention, the value of whose activities in terms of studying celestial bodies cannot be exaggerated.
