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Over the ages, many civilizations and nearly every culture had names, myths, and legends about the Pleiades. They represented the goddess Neith or the Divine Mother to the ancient Egyptians. The Chinese called them The Flower Stars and The Blossom Stars. The Hebrews called them Kimah. The Persians called them Soraya. The Romans called them The Spring Virgins and The Bunch of Grapes. The Japanese called them Subaru meaning bright stars getting together, and, Hoki Boshi or brush stars because the Pleiades looked like daubs of bright paint. The Hindus called them The Flames of Agni. Old European names for them connoted The Hen and Chicks The Aztecs, Australian Aboriginals, Columbian Amazons, Incas, Mayans, Native Americans, and South African tribes all had relevant folklore about them. In the northern hemisphere the springtime dawn rising of the Pleiades marked the beginning of both the farming and seafaring seasons; while, its setting in autumn denoted the seasons end. Andean farmers forecast rain based on their placement in the skies. When the Pleiades were conjunct the Sun in the spring, the Greeks began their summer sailing season and ended it when the Pleiades opposed the Sun. Occultations of the Pleiades by the Moon and other planets occurred frequently and were often viewed as portentous in ancient times. Located within four degrees of the ecliptic, the distinctive Pleiades star cluster was showcased seasonally in both the northern and southern hemispheres. They were the first stars referenced in astronomical writings. The Pleiades were noted in Chinese annals around 2350 BC; by the Greek writers Hesiod (the farmer's almanac Work and Days) and Homer (the epic poem The Odyssey); and in the Bible (Job 9:7-9; Job 38:31-33; Amos 5:8). The ancient Greek astronomers Aratos and Eudoxus called them The Clusterers, listing them as a constellation. It was a Greek poet named Pindar who first named the stellar cluster the Pleiades after a flock of doves because according to Greek mythos Zeus turned the seven sisters into doves and put them in the heavens
Other possible Greek
derivative words are plein to sail; pleios fullness or many; and, the name of
the mother of the seven sisters, Pleione. When a French group of seven
renaissance poets called themselves, La Pléiade after a group of seven
Hellenistic tragic poets from Alexandria, the term became synonymous with
brilliant group.
After Charles Messier made his nebulae and star clusters list in 1771, identifying them as No. 45, they also became known as Messier 45 and M45. Observable with the naked eye since remote antiquity, anywhere from 6 to 12 or more of the Pleiades are visible without the aid of a telescope, depending on the clarity and darkness of the night skies. Galileo was the first to telescopically study the star cluster, noting more than 40 stars in the cluster. In 1885, they were photographed for the first time by Paul and Prosper Henry. Nine of the visible stars have mythological names (please see the picture below) derived from Greek myths about The Seven Sisters. They are the father Atlas, the mother Pleione, and the seven sisters Alcyone, Asterope, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta and Celaeno. Vision, pollution levels, and local atmospheric transparency all affect how many of the stars of the Pleiades cluster are discernible to human eyes on any given night. Although there are a few stars which appear as dim specks that are similar to our sun, the luminosity of most of the Pleiades stars ranges from forty to one thousand times brighter than our sun. An open, nebulous star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, the Pleiades are also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and M45. They are a relatively youthful group of approximately 500 tightly clustered stars, recent data measurements indicate that the Pleiades are around 100 million years old and about 380 light years from Earth. None of the stars has matured to the red giant stage yet, but, the brightest of them are hot blue-white giants. With an estimated lifespan of 250 million years, the stars will slowly move away from each other. The seven sisters in Greek mythology (Maia, Electra, Alcyone, Taygete, Asterope, Celaeno and Merope) were the daughters of the Oceanid, protectress of sailing, Pleione, and, Atlas, the Titan who supported the sky. The seven sisters were companions of Artemis, the virgin goddess of the Moon and hunting. During an accidental encounter with the seven sisters while he was out hunting, Orion became smitten with them and pursued them relentlessly all over the earth. Artemis beseeched Zeus to intervene. He did so by transforming them into a flock of doves and placing them in the heavens as stars. Since the path of the Moon passes close to the Pleiades, Artemis was comforted by frequent reunions with her former earthly companions. For some information about recent occurrences involving the interconnectivity and interrelationships between the Earth, the Solar System, and the Pleiades please see the Pleiadian Pleiades Orion Orions Article, Pleiadian Knowledge Keys. Although the Pleiades is a young star cluster, some of the original stellar members are "White Dwarf Stars". One possible explanation for their quickened evolution is that incredibly massive stars became white dwarfs through an intensified process of stellar mass loss in planetary nebulae caused by rapid rotation, stellar winds, and siphoning by nearby stars. The white dwarfs are the residual star cores. The Pleiades stellar cluster also has many double and a few triple stars.
Surveys of the Pleiades have revealed
that about 170 stars are X-ray emitters, many of which emit X-rays at levels up
to 1,000 times higher than the Sun. Beginning in 1995, "Brown Dwarf" stars have been detected in the Pleiades.
Presumably they are observable in the infrared spectrum with probable masses
around 10-60 times that of Jupiter, diameters equal to or less than that planet,
and strong gravitational fields.
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