Amateur astronomers can easily find the so-called water region in the night sky. Pisces, Aquarius “dwell” here, Eridanus “flows”. There is also the constellation of China. This celestial drawing occupies a fairly vast area. For observation with the naked eye in good weather, about a hundred stars are included in its composition.
Location
The constellation Ceti for children, however, as well as for adults, is a rather simple object in terms of detection in the sky. He has quite bright and well-known landmarks for almost everyone - these are Orion and Taurus. They are located not far east of the constellation described.
The whale is among the southern heavenly figures, since only a small part of it lies in the northern hemisphere. The ideal time to observe the constellation is November. Moreover, in our country you can admire it only in the central and southern regions.
Whale constellation: legend
The whale is one of the oldest clusters of stars that make up the list of the Greek scientist Ptolemy. Strictly speaking, a mammal that is impressive in size, plowing the expanses of the ocean and feeding on plankton, has only an indirect relation to such a heavenly 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 in 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 just a huge fish, was supposed to eat Andromeda, the daughter of Kefey. Saved the beautiful Perseus, and after a while the gods immortalized all participants in those events in the sky. Perhaps the constellation of China for children for the first time becomes interesting after reading this legend. Although sometimes it happens the other way around: Greek mythology is filled with new meaning after acquaintance with a map of the starry sky.
The brightest
The constellation of China is noteworthy in many ways. For example, not always, that is, not at any time, it is safe to say which star in its composition is the brightest. The status of the most visible luminaries is usually Alpha and Beta of the heavenly pattern, with the second brighter than the first. However, sometimes the constellation of Cetus is illuminated by flashes of the Worlds (Omicron Ceti), but more on that later.
The beta of this cluster of stars is also called Difda or Deneb Kaitos (whale tail). This is an orange giant entering the last stage of its life cycle. Difda is not much larger than the Sun in mass (only three times), but it shines brighter than it 145 times and 17 times larger in diameter. The orange giant is located 96 light-years from our planet.
Amazing
Several very interesting objects are included in the constellation Cetus. The stars, designated as Omicron and Tau, attract the attention of many astronomers, both amateur and professional.
Omicron Kita, already mentioned above, is also called Peace, which means “amazing” or “wondrous”. Its pioneer is David Fabricius, who observed the star in 1596. The luminary refers to the type of long-period variables designated in its honor by the myrid. Their characteristic feature is a long period of brightness change. In the case of Mira, it averages 331.62 days. Amazing is the range in which its magnitude varies : from 3.4 to 9.3 m. At maximum brightness, Omicron Ceti becomes one of the brightest stars in this celestial pattern, and at a minimum it is not visible even with binoculars. At the same time, the boundaries of the range can shift: Mira can become a 2.0 m star, that is, the brightest in the constellation. The lower boundary, in turn, sometimes shifts to 10.1 m.
Double
The world also represents a multiple star system consisting of two luminaries. The red giant of World A and its companion, the white dwarf of World B, are separated by a distance of 70 light years and rotate with an orbital period of 400 years. The features described above characterize Omicron Kit A, however, the white dwarf is also among the variable stars. It is surrounded by a disk consisting of a substance that flows here from the red giant. The substance acts unevenly, as a result of which the brightness of the companion varies from 9.5 to 12 m.
Tail
Mira fully 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 giant gas and dust tail was discovered in the luminary: it extends 13 light years, which is 3 times greater than the distance from the Sun to Proxima Centauri. According to researchers, Omicron Ceti loses a mass equal to the earth’s mass every ten years. As a result of the peculiarities of the motion of the star, the substance it discharges 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, the World is overcome by a cloud of interstellar gas flying towards it. The consequence of this is the formation of the tail.
Sunlike
The world is not the only "attraction" adorning the constellation. Tau Kita - no less famous luminary of this heavenly drawing. After Proxima Centauri and Epsilon Eridanus, it is the closest star to us (distance - 12 light years). Its peculiarity is the similarity in many parameters with the Sun. Tau Ceti, like our star, is a yellow dwarf with no companions. It slowly rotates around its axis, which again makes it related to the Sun. Meanwhile, this property of two luminaries is not characteristic of stars of their spectral class. In the case of the Sun, slow rotation is explained by the presence of the planetary system, which shared the moment of momentum with the luminary. Until recently, assumptions about the reason for the slow rotation of the Tau Ceti existed only at the level of speculation.
Five planets
The constellation of Whale, as a rule, deprives its attention of its horoscope as not related to the zodiac. Astronomers, unlike astrologers, believe that with some probability the stars of the Whale can play a very significant role in the life of all mankind.
In December 2012, the slow rotation of the Tau Ceti received an explanation similar to the same property of the Sun: five exoplanets were discovered in the star. Since then, the attention of many experts 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 livable, which means they can be inhabited.
All five objects are located quite compactly: the orbit of the most distant from the star is located closer to the Tau Ceti than Mars 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 the discovery, if not of a developed civilization, then at least of primitive organisms, rest on the last two planets.
Features 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 system is approximately 640 days. The data obtained do not allow us to unambiguously determine what the temperature conditions on these cosmic bodies are, 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 about 10 times ahead of our piece of the Galaxy. In such conditions, the planets must constantly withstand collisions with massive objects, comparable to the meteorite that supposedly caused the death of the dinosaurs. It is therefore highly probable that life, if it exists on the planets of Tau Ceti, is at a primitive level.
However, all this information still requires rechecking and more thorough analysis. At the moment, the constellation Ceti remains the place where the star shines with potentially inhabited planets. Scientists do not give up hope to find evidence of the existence of life at these objects, for which they constantly send a radio telescope towards the Tau Ceti in order to catch possible signals from the civilization located there.
The heavenly figure 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 of the Constellation of China (Russia, Novosibirsk).
Among the objects of this heavenly drawing there are not only interesting stars. There are a large number of galaxies and nebulae. The entire constellation of China (stars, galactic clusters and its other elements) is of great interest to science. Amateur astronomers, whose activity value in terms of studying the celestial bodies is impossible to exaggerate, do not deprive him of attention.