Nemesis' godly pursuer kept up with her by transforming into even larger and swifter animals, eventually landing in the form of a swan, in which he caught and raped her. In other stories, Zeus took a swan's shape to seduce Leda, wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta, who also slept with her husband on the same night.
Leda gave birth to an egg, out of which came the twins Castor and Pollux represented in the constellation Gemini and the beautiful Helen of Troy.
Related: Celestial swan soars over castle ruins in amazing photo. Another version of that tale states that Leda actually gave birth to two eggs, one which produced the male twins, and the other which produced Helen and her sister Clytemnestra. To make things stranger, Zeus was said to be the father of Helen and Pollux, while Tyndareus fathered Clytemnestra and Castor.
Chinese accounts call Cygnus "Tianjin," or a ford or bridge, which crosses the Milky Way, known as "Tianhe," or celestial river, Ridpath writes.
Ancient Hindu astronomers associated the starry pattern with the "Brahma Muhurta" "Moment of the Universe" , a period between and in the morning that is considered the best time to start the day, according to Universe Today.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space. Adam Mann. While it is not possible to see the system without a telescope, it's still fascinating to know it's there.
The constellation also contains many clusters and beautiful nebulae, the most famous of which is the North America Nebula also known as NGC Through binoculars, it appears as a faint glow. Dedicated stargazers can also search out the Veil Nebula, which is a huge remnant leftover from a supernova explosion that took place more than five thousand years ago. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
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She previously worked on a Hubble Space Telescope instrument team. Facebook Facebook. It will come within nine light years of the solar system around the year 20, He named 61 Cygni the Flying Star.
P Cygni is a variable star classified as a hypergiant luminous blue variable LBV. Luminous blue variables are rare and only found in regions of intense star formation.
They are usually short lived. Because of their enormous mass and energy, they exhaust their nuclear fuel pretty quickly and erupt into supernovae after only a few million years. Our Sun, for comparison, has been around for several billion years.
It is one of the most luminous stars ever discovered in the Milky Way. It had not been discovered sooner because it only brightened to third magnitude in the last few years of the 16th century. It faded again in then brightened again in only to fade again in It has been a fifth magnitude star ever since.
Today, it has an apparent magnitude of 4. It was Johann Bayer who gave the star the designation P as a nova. It has an apparent magnitude of 4.
It is cooler than the Sun, but much brighter and larger. Its surface temperature is between 3, and 5, kelvin. Theta Cygni is main sequence star belonging to the spectral class F3 V, approximately It is four times as luminous as our Sun and has about 38 percent more mass. It is between 0. The star has a faint companion, one with a magnitude of The companion is a red dwarf belonging to the spectral class M3 V. Theta Cygni is also notable for possibly having an extrasolar planet in its system.
The ELODIE team discovered radial velocity variations that suggest that the star has a planetary object orbiting it with a period of less than six months.
The planet is believed to be twice the size of Jupiter, but its presence has not been confirmed yet. The brighter two components, two yellow dwarfs similar to the Sun, have apparent magnitudes of 5. The third component is a red dwarf.
The system is some 70 light years distant from Earth. An extrasolar planet has been discovered in an eccentric orbit around 16 Cygni B. Gliese is a yellow subgiant star belonging to the spectral class G6IV, It has an apparent magnitude of 5. In , two extrasolar planets were confirmed in its system. The primary star has a companion, a dim red dwarf of the spectral type M4. The red dwarf has a visual magnitude of Omega Cygni is a multiple star system in Cygnus. It consists of two visual doubles only a third of a degree apart.
Messier 29 is an open cluster with an apparent magnitude of 7. It can be seen with binoculars. The cluster was discovered by Charles Messier in It lies near the star Gamma Cygni, about 1. The estimated age of the cluster is 10 million years. The brightest star has a visual magnitude of 8. The five hottest stars in the cluster belong to the spectral class B0.
Messier 39 is another open star cluster, also discovered by Charles Messier in It is between and million years old, which is an intermediate age for an open cluster.
The cluster is located about light years from the solar system. M39 has an apparent magnitude of 5. The brightest star belongs to the spectral class A0 and has a visual magnitude of 6. All the stars observed in the cluster are on the main sequence, and the brightest ones will soon evolve to the red giant stage. It has an apparent magnitude of 9. The galaxy is located near the border with the constellation Cepheus. It lies close to the galactic plane and is very obscured by interstellar matter of the Milky Way.
Cygnus X-1 is a famous X-ray source, one of the strongest ones seen from Earth. It was first discovered in during a rocket flight. Cygnus X-1 is notable for being the first X-ray source widely believed to be a black hole candidate; it has a mass 8. It is approximately 6, light years distant from Earth.
Cygnus X-1 orbits a blue supergiant variable star, HDE , and the two stars form a binary system. Over time, an accretion disk of material brought from the star by a stellar wind has formed around Cygnus X The nebula is obscured by a band of dust, which determines its shape as we see it.
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