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The Pleiades (/ ˈ p l iː. ə d iː z, ˈ p l eɪ-, ˈ p l aɪ-/), [8] [9] also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is an asterism of an open star cluster containing young B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Taurus.
The poet Sappho mentions the Pleiades in one of her poems: The moon has gone The Pleiades gone In dead of night Time passes on I lie alone. The poet Lord Tennyson mentions the Pleiades in his poem "Locksley Hall": Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.
An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of tens to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and many more are thought to exist. [ 1 ]
Pleiades seen with the naked eye (upper-left corner). [1]The high visibility of the star cluster Pleiades in the night sky and its position along the ecliptic (which approximates to the Solar System's common planetary plane) has given it importance in many cultures, ancient and modern.
The 2007 new Hipparcos reduction gives a statistically more accurate parallax of 8.51 ± 0.28 mas, indicating a distance of 118 ± 4 pc. [2] Analysis of Gaia parallaxes for the whole Pleiades cluster give an average distance of 136.2 ± 5.0 pc, [18] while VLBI measurements of multiple members give a distance of 136.2 ± 1.2 pc. [19]
In Greek mythology, Merope / ˈ m ɛr ə p iː / [1] (Ancient Greek: Μερόπη) is one of the seven Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Pleione, their mother, is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and is the protector of sailors. [2] Their transformation into the star cluster known as the Pleiades is the subject of various myths.
Star map with the Pleiades (upper right) and the Hyades (centre, V-shaped head of the constellation Taurus with its main star Aldebaran, γ Tauri und ε Tauri (Ain)) at both sides of the ecliptic line (dashed red). The Golden Gate of the Ecliptic is an asterism in the constellation Taurus that has been known for several thousand years.
Maia is the daughter of Atlas [3] [4] and Pleione the Oceanid, and is the oldest of the seven Pleiades. [5] They were born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia , [ 4 ] and are sometimes called mountain nymphs , oreads ; Simonides of Ceos sang of "mountain Maia" (Maiados oureias) "of the lovely black eyes."