Andromeda: The Chained Princess

Diana Huynh Physics 1040 sec 6 MWF 8-8:50a.m Constellation Paper

Mythology

The constellation of Andromeda comes from Greek mythology. The story behind this constellation is that Andromeda was the daughter/princess of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Ethiopia. The queen Cassiopeia had offended the Nereids (sea nymphs) who have incredible beauty, by saying that Andromeda was more beautiful than they were. The Nereids went to the sea god, Poseidon, and complained about it to him which resulted in him sending the sea monster, Cetus, to destroy Ethiopia. The king went to seek advice from Ammon, the oracle of Jupiter, on how to prevent the destruction; the only answer was to sacrifice his beautiful daughter to please the gods and nymphs. Therefore, his daughter was chained to a rock and left there for the monster but Perseus saw her chained when he was coming back from killing Medusa. He instantly fell in love with her because of her beauty. Perseus tells her father and mother that if he were to kill the monster that they would have to grant him permission to marry their daughter and of course, they gave him consent. The two got married and had children, but after their death, it is said that Athena was the one who placed Andromeda in the sky to honor her, next to her mother, Cassiopeia and her husband, Perseus.

The Constellation and Stars

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The constellation of Andromeda is located in the first quadrant of the northern hemisphere between latitudes at +90 and -40. Its centered near RA 1h 11m 10.3s. Its declination is +37 43 27. It is the nineteenth biggest constellation in the night sky with an area of 722 square degrees. The neighboring constellations include her husband Perseus, her father Cepheus, her mother Cassiopeia, Auriga, Cetus, Lacerta, and Pegasus. The brightest star within the constellation is called Alpheratz, which is 97 light years away from Earth and represents Andromedas head while her feet lie near Perseus. Alpheratz is a binary star which means there are actually two stars close in orbit. The visual magnitude of the star is +2.06. Its a hot blue star categorized as a B8 star. It has a luminosity of 200 times more than our sun, making it the brightest mercury-manganese star known. Alpheratz is also part of the constellation Pegasus in the northeast region of the Great Square of Pegasus. Mirach has about the same magnitude as Alpheratz varying between +2.01 to +2.10. Its a bright, red giant around 200 light years away. Mirach is part of the asterism called the girdle. The star is seven arc minutes away from NGC 404 Galaxy sometimes called Mirachs Ghost because of how close it is to the star, it makes it hard to spot and photograph. Almach is a K3 type star with an orange hue to it with a magnitude of +2.14 and is the third brightest star of the constellation. Its a multiple star system that has a yellow magnitude of +2.3 and a secondary magnitude of +5.0 that are separated by 9.7 arcseconds. The secondary star

is also a binary star system within itself with another magnitude of +6.3. The entire star system is 358 light years away. Name Alpheratz ( Andromedae ) Mirach ( Andromedae) Almach ( Andromedae) Andromedae Andromedae Andromedae Adhil ( Andromedae) Nembus Andromedae RA 00h 08m 23.17s 01h 09m 43.80s 02h 03m 53.92s 00h 39m 19.6s 23h 38m 08.18s 01h 36m 47.98s 01h 22m 20.39s 01h 37m 59.50s 00h 56m 45.10s DEC +29 05 27.0 +35 37 15.0 +42 19 47.5 +30 51 40.4 +43 16 05.1 +41 24 23.0 +45 31 43.5 +48 37 42.6 +38 29 57.3 +4.875 +3.59 +3.86 Visible Magnitude +2.06 +2.01- +2.10 +2.26 +3.28 +4.29 Distance(ly) 97 200 350 101 503 44 195 174 136 Spectral Class B9P M0IIIvar K3IIb K3III B8V F8V K0III-IV K3III A5V

Objects of Interest Within the constellation of Andromeda, theres a lot of fascinating things. The most obvious one is the Andromeda Galaxy or M31. Its a spiral galaxy that is estimated 2.5 million light years away from our solar system, but is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. It is said that the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the farthest objects in the sky that can still be seen with our naked eye. The magnitude of the galaxy is +3.4 with roughly around a trillion stars making it a lot brighter than our galaxy.

There is the Local Group of galaxies and Andromeda belongs to part of it including the Milky Way, Triangulum, and others. It is said that the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide in 4 billion years, this being because their masses are approximately equal.

Another galaxy within the constellation is called Messier 32 or Le Gentil. Its a dwarf elliptical galaxy thats roughly 2.65 million light years away that was discovered by a man named Guillaume Le Gentil, hence the name. Its the first elliptical galaxy to be discovered, and since its size is smaller, its a satellite to the Andromeda Galaxy. Messier 32 is 22 arcminutes away from the center of Andromeda and is said to be closer to us since it rests over Andromedas spiral arms. Theres no star formation going on within the galaxy but it has a massive black hole in its center thats estimated to be between 1.5 and 5 million solar masses. The last galaxy within the constellation is called Messier 110. Its a dwarf elliptical galaxy that could be classified as a spheroidal galaxy too. It shows signs of recent star formation and doesnt appear to have a black hole of some sort. It was discovered by a man named Charles Messier with Andromeda and other objects. Its about 2.9 million light years away.

There are also meteor showers that radiate from the constellation. Every November, Andromedids appear. Its a very weak shower but some of the meteors look like red fireballs. It used to have one of the best meteor shows back in the 1800s with rates of about two per second. A recent outburst of meteors happened recently back in 2011 with approximately 50 meteors per hour. Many of the major stars of the constellation are either binary star systems or multiple star systems.

The image shows the shape of the constellation, including the major stars and galaxies within it. Bibliography: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/AndromedaCC.jpg http://www.comfychair.org/~cmbell/myth/andromeda.html http://www.fvastro.org/articles/andromeda.htm http://www.topastronomer.com/StarCharts/Constellations/Andromeda.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_(constellation)#Stars http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/andromeda-constellation/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_Andromeda http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/andromeda-constellation/messier31-andromeda-galaxy/ 9) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Andromeda_annotated.png