Beehive Cluster

Coordinates: Sky map 08h 40.4m 00s, +19° 41′ 00″
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the Beehive Cluster. For other uses, see Beehive.
Messier 44 / Beehive Cluster
Distance
610 ly[1] (187 pc)
Apparent magnitude (V)3.7[2]
Apparent dimensions (V)95′
Physical characteristics
Mass~500–600 M☉
Estimated age~600–700 million years
Other designationsPraesepe, M44, NGC 2632, Cr 189
Associations
ConstellationCancer
See also: Open cluster, List of open clusters
Map showing the location of M44 in the constellation of Cancer

The Beehive Cluster (also known as Praesepe (Latin for "manger", "cot" or "crib"), M44, NGC 2632, or Cr 189), is an

Galileo
studied with his telescope.[3]

Age and proper motion coincide with those of the

white dwarfs, which represent later stages of stellar evolution, along with many main sequence
stars.

Distance to M44 is often cited to be between 160 and 187

color-magnitude diagram favors an analogous distance of 182 pc.[9][10] There are better age estimates of around 600 million years[5][7][11] (compared to about 625 million years for the Hyades).[12] The diameter of the bright inner cluster core is about 7.0 parsecs (23 light years).[11]

At 1.5° across, the cluster easily fits within the field of view of binoculars or low-powered small telescopes. Regulus, Castor, and Pollux are guide stars.

History

In 1609,

Titans.[14]

Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest includes the Beehive Cluster as one of seven "nebulae" (four of which are real[16]), describing it as "The Nebulous Mass in the Breast (of Cancer)".[17] Aratus (c.260–270 BC) calls the cluster Achlus or "Little Mist" in his poem Phainomena.[15]

Johann Bayer showed the cluster as a nebulous star on his Uranometria atlas of 1603, and labeled it Epsilon. The letter is now applied specifically to the brightest star of the cluster Epsilon Cancri, of magnitude 6.29.[18]

This perceived nebulous object is in the Ghost (Gui Xiu), the 23rd lunar mansion of ancient Chinese astrology. Ancient Chinese skywatchers saw this as a ghost or demon riding in a carriage and likened its appearance to a "cloud of pollen blown from willow catkins". It was also known by the somewhat less romantic name of Jishi qi (積屍氣, also transliterated Tseih She Ke), the "Exhalation of Piled-up Corpses".[15] It is also known simply as Jishi (積屍), "cumulative corpses".

Morphology and composition

Like many

mass segregation.[7][11][19] This means that bright massive stars are concentrated in the cluster's core, while dimmer and less massive stars populate its halo (sometimes called the corona). The cluster's core radius is estimated at 3.5 parsecs (11.4 light years); its half-mass radius is about 3.9 parsecs (12.7 light years); and its tidal radius is about 12 parsecs (39 light years).[7][11]
However, the tidal radius also includes many stars that are merely "passing through" and not bona fide cluster members.

Widefield image of the Beehive Cluster

Altogether, the cluster contains at least 1000 gravitationally bound stars, for a total mass of about 500–600 Solar masses.[7][11] A recent survey counts 1010 high-probability members, of which 68% are M dwarfs, 30% are Sun-like stars of spectral classes F, G, and K, and about 2% are bright stars of spectral class A.[7] Also present are five giant stars, four of which have spectral class K0 III and the fifth G0 III.[4][7][20]

So far, eleven

eclipsing binary system AD 3116.[22]

The cluster has a visual brightness of magnitude 3.7. Its brightest stars are blue-white and of magnitude 6 to 6.5. 42 Cancri is a confirmed member.

Photo of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) next to Messier 44

Planets

In September 2012, two planets which orbit separate stars were discovered in the Beehive Cluster. The finding was significant for being the first planets detected orbiting stars like Earth's Sun that were situated in stellar clusters. Planets had previously been detected in such clusters, but not orbiting stars like the Sun.[23]

The planets have been designated

gas giants that, unlike the planet Jupiter, orbit very close to their parent stars.[23]

The announcement describing the planetary finds, written by Sam Quinn as the lead author, was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Quinn's team worked with David Latham of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, utilizing the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory.[23][24]

In 2016 additional observations found a second planet in the Pr0211 system, Pr0211 c. This made Pr0211 the first multi-planet system to be discovered in an open cluster.[25]

The Kepler space telescope, in its K2 mission, discovered planets around several more stars in the Beehive Cluster. The stars K2-95,[26] K2-100, K2-101, K2-102, K2-103, and K2-104[27] host a single planet each, and K2-264 has a two-planet system.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^ "NGC 2632". sim-id. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  2. ^ "Messier 44".
    SEDS
    . Retrieved 2009-12-10.
  3. ^ "Messier 44: Observations and Descriptions".
  4. ^ a b Klein-Wassink, W.J. (1927). "The proper motion and the distance of the Praesepe cluster". Publications of the Kapteyn Astronomical Laboratory Groningen. 41: 1–48.
    Bibcode:1927PGro...41....1K
    .
  5. ^ a b c Dobbie PD; Napiwotzki R; Burleigh MR; et al. (2006). "New Praesepe white dwarfs and the initial mass-final mass relation".
    S2CID 17914736
    .
  6. ^ Pinfield DJ; Dobbie PD; Jameson F; Steele IA; et al. (2003). "Brown dwarfs and low-mass stars in the Pleiades and Praesepe: Membership and binarity".
    S2CID 285922
    .
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Kraus AL; Hillenbrand LA (2007). "The stellar populations of Praesepe and Coma Berenices".
    S2CID 15945900
    .
  8. ^ WEBDA
  9. ^ van Leeuwen, F. "Parallaxes and proper motions for 20 open clusters as based on the new Hipparcos catalogue", A&A, 2009
  10. ^ Majaess, D.; Turner, D.; Lane, D.; Krajci, T. "Deep Infrared ZAMS Fits to Benchmark Open Clusters Hosting delta Scuti Stars", Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, 2011
  11. ^ a b c d e Adams JD; Stauffer JR; Skrutskie MF; et al. (2002). "Structure of the Praesepe Star Cluster".
    doi:10.1086/342016
    .
  12. ^ Perryman M; Brown A; Lebreton Y; Gomez A; Turon C; Cayrel de Strobel G; et al. (1998). "The Hyades: Distance, structure, dynamics, and age".
    Bibcode:1998A&A...331...81P
    .
  13. ^ Frommert, Hartmut (1998). "Messier Questions & Answers".
    SEDS. Archived
    from the original on 9 February 2005. Retrieved 2005-03-01.
  14. ^ "M44".
    SEDS
    . Retrieved 2005-02-06.
  15. ^ a b c Allen, Richard Hinckley (1889). Star Names. p. 112.
  16. ^ "The Discovery of the Deep Sky Objects".
  17. SEDS
    . Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  18. ^ "Cancer – the asses and the Manger". Star Tales (online edition). Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  19. ^ Portegies Zwart SF; McMillan SL; Hut P; Makino J (2001). "Star cluster ecology IV. Dissection of an open star cluster: Photometry".
    S2CID 18396503
    .
  20. ^ Abt HA; Willmarth DW (1999). "Binaries in the Praesepe and Coma star clusters and their implications for binary evolution".
    S2CID 119772785
    .
  21. ^ Gonzalez-Garcia BM; Zapatero Osorio MR; Bejar VJS; Bihain G; et al. (2006). "A search for substellar members in the Praesepe and Sigma Orionis clusters".
    S2CID 119376131
    .
  22. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa84b3
    .
  23. ^
    S2CID 118825401
    .
  24. ^ "First Planets Found Around Sun-Like Stars in a Cluster". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  25. S2CID 119207951
    .
  26. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/152/6/223
    .
  27. S2CID 119260879
    .
  28. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aadf37
    .

External links

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