Coma Berenices

Coma Berenices is a traditional asterism that has since been defined as one of the 88 modern constellations. It is located near Leo, to which it formerly belonged, and accommodates the North Galactic Pole. Its name means "Berenice's Hair" (in Greek, via Latin), and refers to the legend of Queen Berenice II of Egypt, who sacrificed her long hair. ... Although Coma Berenices is not a large constellation, it contains eight Messier objects. The constellation is rich in galaxies, containing the northern part of the Virgo cluster. There are also several globular clusters to be seen. These objects can be seen with minimal obscuration from dust because the constellation is not in the direction of the galactic plane (the North Pole of the galactic plane is in this constellation). However, because of this fact, there are few open clusters (except for the Coma Berenices Cluster, which dominates the northern part of the constellation), diffuse nebulae, or planetary nebulae. Stars. Coma Berenices is not particularly bright, having no stars brighter than fourth magnitude. Beta Comae Berenices is the brightest star in the constellation, at magnitude 4.2; it is 30 light-years from Earth. Like the Sun, it is a yellow-hued main-sequence star. It is intrinsically only slightly brighter than the Sun, which gives an idea of how faint the Sun would appear seen from Beta Comae's distance. The second brightest star in Coma Berenices is α Comae Berenices also called Diadem. The name represents the gem in Berenice's crown. It is a binary star, with two components of almost equal magnitude. To the naked eye, it appears to be one star of magnitude 4.3. Because the orbital plane is so close to the Earth's line of sight, it was long suspected of being an eclipsing binary, but it now appears that the orbital tilt is 0.1° relative to the line of sight, so the stars do not eclipse each other as seen from Earth. The two components are slightly yellow-tinged; both are of magnitude 5.1. This binary has a period of 26 years and is 47 light-years from Earth. Gamma Comae Berenices, which is superimposed on the Coma Star Cluster, is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 4.4, 170 light-years from Earth. ... Star clusters. Coma Berenices Open Cluster. The Coma Berenices Cluster does not have a Messier or an NGC designation, but it is in the Melotte catalogue of open clusters, where it is designated Melotte 111. It is a large, diffuse open cluster of about 50 stars that range between 5th and 10th magnitudes, including several of the naked eye stars in the constellation. 12 Comae Berenices, at magnitude 4.8, is the cluster's brightest member. ... Globular clusters. M53 (NGC 5024) is a globular cluster ... it is of magnitude 7.7 and is 56,000 light-years from Earth. ... Galaxies. Virgo cluster of galaxies. Coma Berenices contains the northern portion of the Virgo cluster (also known as the Coma-Virgo cluster), which is around 60 million light years away. ... Coma cluster of galaxies. The Coma cluster of galaxies is to the north of the Virgo cluster. It lies much further off, however, around 230 to 300 million light years away. The cluster is quite large, containing 1,000 large galaxies and possibly up to 30,000 smaller ones. ... Other galaxies. M64 (NGC 4826) is known as the Black Eye Galaxy because of the prominent dark dust lane in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus. ... Also known as the Sleeping Beauty and Evil Eye galaxy, it is relatively nearby, at around 17 million light years away from Earth. ... NGC 4314 is a face-on barred spiral galaxy at a distance of 40 million light-years. ... NGC 4565 is a very well known edge-on spiral galaxy. It is of the 10th magnitude and appears superimposed on the Virgo Cluster, though it is only 20 million light-years from Earth. ... NGC 4676, sometimes called the "Mice" galaxies, is a pair of interacting galaxies at a distance of 300 million light-years from Earth. ... Quasars. Quasar PG1247+26° is the brightest quasar visible in Coma Berenices. ... Coma Berenices contains the North Galactic Pole, at right ascension 12h 51m 25s and declination +27° 07′ 48″ (epoch J2000.0). ... Meteor showers. The December Coma Berenicids are a meteor shower that lasts from December through January; it peaks between December 18 and 25. [Coma Berenices. Wikipedia]