Cassiopeia is a
constellationIn modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
in the northern sky, named after the vain queen
CassiopeiaCassiopeia is the name of several figures in Greek mythology.-Wife of Cepheus:The Queen Cassiopeia, wife of king Cepheus of Æthiopia, was beautiful but also arrogant and vain; these latter two characteristics led to her downfall....
in
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty. Cassiopea was one of the 48 constellations listed by the
2nd centuryThe 2nd century is the period from 101 to 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period...
Greek astronomer
PtolemyClaudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. It is easily recognizable due to its distinctive 'W' shape, formed by five bright stars. It is bordered by
AndromedaAndromeda is a constellation in the northern sky. It is named after Andromeda, the princess in the Greek legend of Perseus who was chained to a rock to be eaten by the sea monster Cetus...
to the south,
PerseusPerseus is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the Greek hero Perseus. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union...
to the southeast, and
CepheusCepheus is a constellation in the northern sky. It is named after Cepheus, King of Aethiopia in Greek mythology. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations.-Stars:...
to the north. She is opposite the
Big DipperThe Plough, also known as the Big Dipper or the Saptarishi , is an asterism of seven stars that has been recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures from time immemorial...
, and from northern latitudes can be seen at her clearest in early November.
Stars
Cassiopeia contains two stars visible to the naked eye that rank among the most luminous in the galaxy:
ρ CasRho Cassiopeiae is a yellow hypergiant star in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is about away from Earth, yet can still be seen by the naked eye , as it is 550,000 times as luminous as the Sun. On average, it has an absolute magnitude of −7.5, making it one of the most luminous stars known...
and
V509 CasV509 Cassiopeiae is a star in the constellation Cassiopeia.V509 Cassiopeiae is a yellow-white G-type hypergiant with a mean apparent magnitude of +5.10. It is at least 7800 light years from Earth. It is classified as a semiregular variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +4.75 to...
, both of the extremely rare class of
yellow hypergiantGenerally speaking, a yellow hypergiant is a massive star with an extended atmosphere, which can be classified as spectral class from late A to K, with a mass of as much as 20-50 solar masses...
s. The star
η CasEta Cassiopeiae is a star system 19.4 light years away from Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia. Sometimes the traditional name Achird is used....
is a nearby (19.4 ly)
binary starA binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary...
comprising a yellow
SunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
-like dwarf and an orange dwarf star.
Within the 'W' asterism formed by Cassiopeia’s five major stars lies
Cassiopeia ACassiopeia A is a supernova remnant in the constellation Cassiopeia and the brightest astronomical radio source in the sky, with a flux density of 2720 Jy at 1 GHz. The supernova occurred approximately away in the Milky Way. The expanding cloud of material left over from the supernova is now...
(Cas A). It is the remnant of a
supernovaA supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
that took place approximately 300 years ago (as observed now from Earth 11,000 light-years away), and has the distinction of being the strongest radio source observable outside our solar system. It was perhaps observed as a faint star in 1680 by
John FlamsteedSir John Flamsteed FRS was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. He catalogued over 3000 stars.- Life :Flamsteed was born in Denby, Derbyshire, England, the only son of Stephen Flamsteed...
. It was also the subject of the first image returned by the
Chandra X-Ray ObservatoryThe Chandra X-ray Observatory is a satellite launched on STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. It was named in honor of Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who is known for determining the maximum mass for white dwarfs. "Chandra" also means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit.Chandra...
in the late 1990s.
Deep sky objects
Two Messier objects,
Messier 52Messier 52 is an open cluster in the Cassiopeia constellation. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1774. M52 can be seen from Earth with binoculars....
(NGC 7654) and
Messier 103Messier 103 is an open cluster where a few thousand stars formed in the constellation Cassiopeia. This open cluster was discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier’s friend and collaborator Pierre Méchain. It is one of the most distant open clusters, with distances of 8,000 to 9,500 light years from the...
(NGC 581), are located in Cassiopeia. Both are open clusters and being 7th apparent magnitude objects they are easy targets with binoculars.
Pattern from Alpha Centauri
If one were able to observe Earth's
SunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
from
Alpha CentauriAlpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...
, the closest star to our
solar systemThe Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
, it would appear in Cassiopeia as a yellow-white 0.5 magnitude star. The famous W of Cassiopeia would become a zig-zag pattern with the Sun at the leftmost end, closest to
ε CasEpsilon Cassiopeiae is a star system in the constellation Cassiopeia. It has the traditional name Segin....
.
Mythology
The constellation is named after Cassiopeia, a queen in
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
. Cassiopeia was the wife of
King CepheusIn Greek mythology, Cepheus is the name of two rulers of Ethiopia, grandfather and grandson.Cepheus son of Belus was the son of Belus and Achiroe, making him the brother of Danaus, King of Libya, and Aegyptus, King of Egypt. He had a wife named Iope and a son who he named Agenor after his paternal...
, and became jealous of the beauty of their daughter
AndromedaAndromeda is a princess from Greek mythology who, as divine punishment for her mother's bragging, the Boast of Cassiopeia, was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. She was saved from death by Perseus, her future husband. Her name is the Latinized form of the Greek Ἀνδρομέδη...
was very beautiful. When she boasted for her beauty,
PoseidonPoseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
, the sea god, sentenced Andromeda to be tied to a rock with a sea monster awaiting her. The hero
PerseusPerseus ,Perseos and Perseas are not used in English. the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians...
defeated the monster, and claimed her as his wife, but Cepheus and Cassiopea preferred her to marry another man, Phineus. In the ensuing battle, Perseus slew his opposers, and Cepheus and Cassiopeia were placed next to each other among the stars by Poseidon, Cassiopeia being placed upside down for half the year because of her vanity.
In another tradition, Cassiopeia was a consort of the god Zeus, and had a son named Atymnios with whom two men fell in love. Cassiopeia was hung upside down in a chair in the stars upon her death.
Equivalents
In
Chinese astronomyAstronomy in China has a very long history, with historians considering that "they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs."...
, the stars forming the constellation Cassiopeia are found among three areas: the
Purple Forbidden enclosureThe Purple Forbidden enclosure is one of the San Yuan or Three enclosures. Stars and constellations of this group lie near the north celestial pole and visible all year from temperate latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.-Asterisms:The asterisms are :...
(紫微垣,
Zǐ Wēi Yuán), the Black Tortoise of the North (北方玄武,
Běi Fāng Xuán Wǔ), and the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎,
Xī Fāng Bái Hǔ).
In Arabic culture, the stars that form Cassiopeia are depicted as a camel.
Other cultures see a hand or moose antlers in the pattern.
In popular culture
The Cuban artist
Silvio RodríguezSilvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and...
wrote a song to Cassiopeia just after almost dying in a car crash.
Rock group Third Eye Blind mentions Cassiopeia in their song "Bonfire" and companion song "Lightning Comes, Goes".
Shabutie (now Coheed and Cambria) wrote a song called Cassiopeia on their "Penelope EP"
Also, the Korean group
TVXQTVXQ, an acronym for Tong Vfang Xien Qi , is a South Korean pop group formed in 2003 under SM Entertainment. In South Korea they are known as Dong Bang Shin Ki , often abbreviated by international fans as DBSK; they were later introduced in Japan as Tohoshinki under the Avex sub-label Rhythm Zone...
's fanbase was named after this constellation because of the positioning of the letters
TVfXQ (a variant of their group name) resembled that of the constellation. The official TVXQ Korean fanclub (Cassiopeia) was in the 2008 Guinness world records for largest official fanclub in the world.
The constellation features in the storyline of the 2001 film
SerendipitySerendipity is a 2001 romantic comedy, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. It was written by Marc Klein and directed by Peter Chelsom...
.
The
binary starA binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary...
that is the main star of the constellation, features as setting for at least a part of
Charles SheffieldCharles Sheffield , was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction author. He had been a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society....
's
1985The year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire*Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale*Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters*Iain Banks - Walking on Glass...
Science Fiction novel,
Between the Strokes of NightBetween the Strokes of Night is a Science Fiction novel by Charles Sheffield. The story is divided in two vastly separated time periods: the near future of 2010, and the far future of 29,000 AD...
.
On Joanna Newsom's independent label debut album The Milk-Eyed Mender, released on March 23, 2004 on by Drag City, the eighth song is titled Cassiopeia. It runs 3:20min.
Consumer electronics company
Casiois a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...
used Cassiopeia as the name for a line of
Pocket PCA Pocket PC is also known by Microsoft as a 'Windows Mobile Classic device'. It is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer, personal digital assistant , that runs the Microsoft 'Windows Mobile Classic' operating system...
s running
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's
Windows CEMicrosoft Windows CE is an operating system developed by Microsoft for embedded systems. Windows CE is a distinct operating system and kernel, rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows...
in the late 90s.
The constellation is mentioned in the movie Spartan by Val Kilmer while pointing out North on a map.
It is mentioned in the movie
Omen III: The Final ConflictOmen III: The Final Conflict is a 1981 British/American horror film directed by Graham Baker and the third installment in The Omen series...
(1981) as a sign of the second coming of Christ.
Cassiopeia is mentioned in the Broadway musical
In the HeightsIn the Heights is a musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story explores three days in the characters' lives in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights....
during the song "Paciencia y Fe (Patience and Faith)".
Cassiopeia is the name of a song by the band
DragonlandDragonland is a power metal musical group from Sweden. The group is most notable for basing their two first albums upon the self-produced The Dragonland Chronicles fantasy saga and for the original symphonic/electronic parts by Elias Holmlid...
, on their album "Astronomy".
Cassiopeia is also the name of a champion in the
DotADefense of the Ancients is a custom scenario for the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft...
game
League of LegendsThe BetFred League of Legends was a darts tournament featuring some of the legends of the game of darts which commenced in May 2008. The tournament is broadcast on Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom....
.
Cassiopeia is the title of the first track on the album "Under the Silver of Machines (2007)" by the Alt Rock band Last Winter.
In the 1974 USSR movie
Otroki vo Vselennoy (Teens in the Universe), 7 teenage kids from Soviet Russia ( all Russians) crossed the interstellar space to land on the planet (orbiting Schedar, Alpha Cassiopeiae) to save its human population from enslaving robots.
In the french animated TV series
Once Upon a Time... SpaceOnce Upon a Time… Space was a French animated TV series from 1982, directed by Albert Barillé.-Synopsis:Once Upon a Time... Space differs from the rest of the Once Upon a Time titles in the sense that the series revolve on a dramatic content rather than an educational premise...
, the main antagonist is the military republic of Cassiopeé (
Cassiopeia in
frenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
), whose symbol is the VV formed by the brightest stars of that constellation.
In the news
In May of 2011, Israeli air traffic controllers dispatched two warplanes and two attack helicopters to investigate what they thought were suspicious lights in the sky. After observing the suspicious "enemy aircraft", the pilots confirmed that these were the stars of the Cassiopeia constellation.
Namesakes
USS Cassiopeia (AK-75)USS Cassiopeia was a Crater-class cargo ship in the service of the United States Navy in World War II. It was the only ship of to bear this name. It is named after the northern hemisphere constellation Cassiopeia....
was a
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
Crater class cargo shipCrater-class cargo ship is a category of freighter that was constructed for use by the United States Navy during World War II under Maritime Commission EC2-S-C1 type....
named after the constellation.
See also
- IC 10
IC 10 is an irregular galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by Lewis Swift in 1887. Nicholas U. Mayall was the first to suggest that the object is extragalactic in 1935. Edwin Hubble suspected it might belong to the Local Group of galaxies, but its status remained uncertain for...
– dwarf galaxy
- SN 1572
SN 1572 , "B Cassiopeiae" , or 3C 10 was a supernova of Type Ia in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of about eight supernovae visible to the naked eye in historical records...
– Tycho's Star or Tycho's Supernova - B Cassiopeiae
- Cepheus XR-1 - radio source actually in Cass.
- Cassiopeia (Chinese astronomy)
External links