Virgo is one of the
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....
s of the
zodiacIn astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
. Its name is
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for virgin, and its symbol is
. Lying between
LeoLeo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for lion. Its symbol is . Leo lies between dim Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east.-Stars:...
to the west and
LibraLibra is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for weighing scales, and its symbol is . It is fairly faint, with no first magnitude stars, and lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east.-Notable features:]...
to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky (after
HydraHydra is the largest of the 88 modern constellations, measuring 1303 square degrees. It has a long history, having been included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy. It is commonly represented as a water snake...
). It can be easily found through its brightest star,
SpicaSpica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
.
Location
]
The bright
SpicaSpica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
makes it easy to locate Virgo, as it can be found by following the curve of the
Big DipperUrsa Major , also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. It can best be seen in April...
to
Arcturus in
BoötesBoötes is a constellation in the northern sky, located between 0° and +60° declination, and 13 and 16 hours of right ascension on the celestial sphere. The name comes from the Greek Βοώτης, Boōtēs, meaning herdsman or plowman...
and continuing from there in the same curve ("follow the arc to Arcturus and speed on to Spica").
Due to the effects of
precessionPrecession is a change in the orientation of the rotation axis of a rotating body. It can be defined as a change in direction of the rotation axis in which the second Euler angle is constant...
, the
First Point of LibraAn equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator...
, (also known as
the autumn equinox point) lies within the boundaries of Virgo very close to
β VirginisBeta Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional names Zavijava and Alaraph...
. This is one of the two points in the sky where the
celestial equatorThe celestial equator is a great circle on the imaginary celestial sphere, in the same plane as the Earth's equator. In other words, it is a projection of the terrestrial equator out into space...
crosses the
eclipticThe ecliptic is the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. In more accurate terms, it is the intersection of the celestial sphere with the ecliptic plane, which is the geometric plane containing the mean orbit of the Earth around the Sun...
(the other being the First Point of Aries, now in the constellation of
PiscesPisces is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is the Latin plural for fish, and its symbol is . It lies between Aquarius to the west and Aries to the east...
.) This point will pass into the neighbouring constellation of
LeoLeo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for lion. Its symbol is . Leo lies between dim Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east.-Stars:...
around the year 2440.
Stars
Besides Spica, other bright stars in Virgo include
β VirginisBeta Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional names Zavijava and Alaraph...
(Zavijava),
γ VirGamma Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional names Porrima, Postvarta and Arich....
(Porrima),
δ VirginisDelta Virginis is a red giant star in the constellation Virgo. It also has the traditional name Auva.It has a spectral type of M3-III, and an magnitude of 3.38, bright enough to be seen with the naked eye...
(Auva) and
ε VirginisEpsilon Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Vindemiatrix, which comes from Greek through Latin and means Grape Gatherer....
(Vindemiatrix). Other fainter stars that were also given names are
ζ VirginisZeta Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Heze, which is not often used and of unclear origin.The star is known as Horn 2 in Chinese astronomy....
(Heze),
η VirginisEta Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Zaniah .Zaniah is about 204 light years distant from the Sun, and has apparent magnitude +3.9 and is of spectral type A2IV....
(Zaniah),
ι VirginisIota Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Syrma.Syrma is a yellow star of apparent magnitude 4.08 and spectral class F6 III about 70 light years from Earth.-Namesakes:...
(Syrma) and
μ VirginisMu Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Rijl al Awwa.Rijl al Awwa is a yellow star of apparent magnitude 3.88 and spectral class F2 III about 61 light years from Earth.-Etymology:...
(Rijl al Awwa).
The star
70 Virginis70 Virginis is a yellow dwarf star approximately 59 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It is rather unusually bright for its spectral type and may be just starting to evolve into the subgiant phase....
has one of the first known
extrasolar planetary systemAn extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
s with one confirmed planet 7.5 times the mass of
JupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
.
The star
Chi VirginisChi Virginis is a star system in the constellation Virgo. It is approximately 319 light years from Earth.The primary component, Chi Virginis A, is an orange K-type giant with an apparent magnitude of +4.66. It has three distant companions. At 173.1 arcseconds distant is the magnitude +9.1 Chi...
has one of the most massive planets ever detected, at a mass of 11.1 times that of Jupiter.
The sun-like star
61 Virginis has three planets: one is a
super-EarthA super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below the mass of the Solar System's gas giants. The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet, and does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability...
and two are
NeptuneNeptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
-mass planets.
Exoplanets
With 26 known exoplanets orbiting around 20 stars in this constellation, Virgo has more confirmed exoplanets than any other constellation. 8 planets in this constellation were discovered in 2009, which is the most planets discovered in a single constellation in a single year.
Deep sky objects
Because of the presence of a galaxy cluster (consequently called the
Virgo clusterThe Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1300 member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger Local Supercluster, of which the Local Group is an outlying member...
) within its borders 5° to 10° west of ε Vir (Vindemiatrix), this constellation is especially rich in
galaxiesA galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
.
Some examples are
Messier 49Messier 49 is an elliptical / lenticular galaxy about 49 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. The galaxy was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771.-Supernovae:...
(
ellipticalAn elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flat and in size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars...
),
Messier 58Messier 58 is a barred spiral galaxy located within the constellation Virgo, approximately 68 million light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by Charles Messier on April 15, 1779 and is one of four barred spiral galaxies that appear in Messier's catalogue. M58 is one of the brightest...
(
spiralA spiral galaxy is a certain kind of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work The Realm of the Nebulae and, as such, forms part of the Hubble sequence. Spiral galaxies consist of a flat, rotating disk containing stars, gas and dust, and a central concentration of stars known as...
),
Messier 59Messier 59 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo.-History:Messier 59 and the nearby elliptical galaxy Messier 60 were both discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler in April 1779 during observations of a comet in the same part of the sky...
(elliptical),
Messier 60Messier 60 is an elliptical galaxy approximately 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.-History:...
(elliptical),
Messier 61Messier 61 is a spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. It was discovered by Barnabus Oriani on May 5, 1779.M61 is one of the larger members of the Virgo Cluster.Six supernovae have been observed in this galaxy:...
(spiral),
Messier 84Messier 84 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. M84 is situated in the heavily populated inner core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies....
(
lenticularA lenticular galaxy is a type of galaxy which is intermediate between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy in galaxy morphological classification schemes. Lenticular galaxies are disk galaxies which have used up or lost most of their interstellar matter and therefore have very little ongoing...
),
Messier 86Messier 86 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. M86 lies in the heart of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies and forms a most conspicuous group with another giant, Lenticular Galaxy M84...
(lenticular),
Messier 87Messier 87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. It was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Charles Messier, who cataloged it as a nebulous feature. The second brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster, it is located about 16.4 million parsecs from Earth...
(elliptical and a famous radio source),
Messier 89Messier 89 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781. M89 is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.-Features:...
(elliptical) and
Messier 90Messier 90 is a spiral galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781.- Membership of the Virgo Cluster :...
(spiral). A noted galaxy that is not part of the cluster is the
Sombrero GalaxyThe Sombrero Galaxy is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 28 million light years from earth. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a...
(M104), an unusual spiral galaxy. It is located about 10° due west of Spica.
Mythology
According to the Babylonian
Mul.ApinMUL.APIN is the conventional title given to a Babylonian compendium that deals with many diverse aspects of Babylonian astronomy and astrology....
, which dates between 1000 BC and 686 BC, this constellation was known as "The Furrow", representing the goddess
ShalaShala is a Babylonian and Akkadian war goddess and a goddess of grain, the consort of the storm-god Adad. She carries a double-headed mace-scimitar embellished with lion heads. In the MUL.APIN, she is identified with the Virgo constellation, which was also known as "The Furrow"...
's ear of grain or corn. One star in this constellation,
SpicaSpica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
, retains this tradition as it is
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "ear of grain", one of the major products of the Mesopotamian furrow. The constellation was also known as AB.SIN and absinnu. For this reason the constellation became associated with fertility. According to Gavin White the figure of Virgo corresponds to two Babylonian constellations - the 'Furrow' in the eastern sector of Virgo and the 'Frond of Erua' in the western sector. The Frond of Erua was depicted as a goddess holding a palm-frond - a motif that still occasionally appears in much later depictions of Virgo.
The Greeks and Romans associated Virgo with their goddess of wheat,
DemeterIn Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
-Ceres who is the mother of
ProserpinaProserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. Her Greek goddess' equivalent is Persephone. The probable origin of her name comes from the Latin, "proserpere" or "to emerge," in respect to the growing of grain...
-
PersephoneIn Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....
. Alternatively, she was sometimes identified as the
virgin goddess IustitiaLady Justice |Dike]]) is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems.-Depiction:The personification of justice balancing the scales of truth and fairness dates back to the Goddess Maat, and later Isis, of ancient Egypt. The Hellenic deities Themis and Dike were later...
or Astraea, holding the scales of justice in her hand as the
constellation LibraLibra is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for weighing scales, and its symbol is . It is fairly faint, with no first magnitude stars, and lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east.-Notable features:]...
. In the Middle Ages, Virgo was sometimes associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Astrology
, the Sun appears in the constellation Virgo from September 17 to October 30 . In tropical astrology, the Sun is considered to be in the sign
VirgoVirgo is the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac, which spans the zodiac between the 150th and 179th degree of celestial longitude. Generally, the Sun transits this area of the zodiac between August 23 to September 22 each year...
from August 23 to September 22, and in
sidereal astrologySidereal and tropical are astronomical terms used to describe two different definitions of a "year". They are also used as terms for two systems of ecliptic coordinates used in astrology....
, from September 16 to October 15.
Visualizations
Virgo is often portrayed carrying two sheaves of wheat, one of which is marked by the bright star
SpicaSpica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
.
H.A. Rey has suggested an alternative way to visualize Virgo, which graphically shows the virgin lying down in a
supine positionThe supine position is a position of the body: lying down with the face up, as opposed to the prone position, which is face down, sometimes with the hands behind the head or neck. When used in surgical procedures, it allows access to the peritoneal, thoracic and pericardial regions; as well as the...
. The stars
γ VirGamma Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional names Porrima, Postvarta and Arich....
,
η VirEta Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Zaniah .Zaniah is about 204 light years distant from the Sun, and has apparent magnitude +3.9 and is of spectral type A2IV....
,
β VirBeta Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional names Zavijava and Alaraph...
,
ν VirNu Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo.Nu Virginis is a M-type red giant with a mean apparent magnitude of +4.04. It is approximately 313 light years from Earth. It is classified as a semiregular variable star and its brightness varies by 0.06 magnitudes....
, and
ο VirOmicron Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo.Omicron Virginis is a yellow G-type giant with an apparent magnitude of +4.12. It is approximately 171 light years from Earth....
form the virgin's head. The stars γ Vir,
δ VirDelta Virginis is a red giant star in the constellation Virgo. It also has the traditional name Auva.It has a spectral type of M3-III, and an magnitude of 3.38, bright enough to be seen with the naked eye...
,
ζ VirZeta Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Heze, which is not often used and of unclear origin.The star is known as Horn 2 in Chinese astronomy....
,
α VirSpica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
(Spica), and
θ VirTheta Virginis is a star system in the constellation Virgo. It is approximately 415 light years from Earth.The primary component, Theta Virginis A, is a white A-type subgiant with an apparent magnitude of +4.38. It is a spectroscopic binary whose components have magnitudes +4.6 and +6.8. The...
form the virgin's blouse. The stars α Vir, ζ Vir,
τ VirTau Virginis is a star system in the constellation Virgo. It is approximately 218 light years from Earth.The primary component, Tau Virginis A, is a white A-type main sequence dwarf with an apparent magnitude of +4.23. It has a 9th magnitude companion, Tau Virginis B, 80 arcseconds from the...
,
ι VirIota Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Syrma.Syrma is a yellow star of apparent magnitude 4.08 and spectral class F6 III about 70 light years from Earth.-Namesakes:...
, and
κ VirKappa Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo.Kappa Virginis is an orange K-type giant with an apparent magnitude of +4.18. It is approximately 224 light years from Earth....
form the virgin's skirt. The stars
109 Vir109 Virginis is the seventh brightest star in the constellation Virgo.109 Virginis is a white A-type main sequence dwarf with an apparent magnitude of +3.73. It is approximately 129 light years from Earth....
and
μ VirMu Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Rijl al Awwa.Rijl al Awwa is a yellow star of apparent magnitude 3.88 and spectral class F2 III about 61 light years from Earth.-Etymology:...
represent the Virgin's feet, and the star
ε VirEpsilon Virginis is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional name Vindemiatrix, which comes from Greek through Latin and means Grape Gatherer....
represents the virgin's hand.
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