THE BIG SKY

摘要

Got some binoculars handy? During the first two weeks of May this year look south as it gets dark for the bright star Arcturus. Sweep your optics over to the right of Arcturus and you'll notice a faint collection of stars in an inverted 'V' shape. This is the Coma Star Cluster and is part of the constellation known as Coma Berenices. Coma Berenices is named for the long tousled locks of 3rd century BC Queen Berenices Ⅱ of Egypt. In mythology she is said to have promised the gods that she would cut off her hair if they returned her husband Ptolemy Ⅲ safe from battle. The cascading cluster of stars you see is said to be Berenices' hair placed in the heavens. At 288 light years away the Coma Cluster is actually a collection of 37 stars that are all in the same volume of space. The grouping was forged from a molecular hydrogen cloud more than 420 million years ago.