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Aries the Ram Κριός Dylan Fabert Physics 1040 Section Constellation Paper Mythology Roughly 2,000 years ago Aries was located over the equinox, (the point where the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south) because of this, the Babylonians identified it to be the starting point of the zodiac ("Aries Constellation"). However, this is credited to the revisions the Neo-Babylonians did to the Babylonian zodiac, which placed Alpha Arietis, Hamal, very close to the vernal equinox. In Greek mythology the ram, Aries, with the Golden Fleece was sought by Jason and the Argonauts. Jason was the son of Aeson and became famous for his role as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece, but how did they know about the Golden Fleece? The Boeotian King had two children, a son named Phrixus and a twin sister Helle. After Nephele, king Athamas’s first wife, died the king took a new wife named Ino. Ino had an incredibly deep hate for her new step children and had to find a way to get rid of them. After thinking and thinking Ino had finally came up with the perfect plan and was ready to set it into action! The only problem was she didn’t account for intervention of the Gods. The first part of Ino’s plan was to set the land into famine by sabotaging the seeds, before the sow, to ensure the wheat crops would fail. Because of her success the crops failed and the land went into famine. As an attempt to solve the problem and make things right again King Athamas sent a man to consult the Oracle at Delphi. Ino intercepted the man and bribed him to lie to the King by telling him the only way to keep the people from starvation was by sacrificing his children. Because of the King’s desperation he agreed and began the sacrifice process. The children’s real mother, the cloud nymph Nephele, saw this catastrophe in action and knew she had to help. As the children were about to die, a winged ram with golden wool, sent by their mother, swooped down for their rescue. Both children were rescued and the ram took them East toward Colchis. On the journey the ram passes over a strait where Helle fell off and unfortunately drown in the Dardanelles, because of this tragedy the strait was renamed Hellespont or sea of Helle in her memory. Upon arrival at Colchis, Phrixus presented King Aeetes with the Golden Fleece from the ram Aries, and in return the King gave Phrixus his daughter’s hand. (Napoli, Treasury of Greek mythology: classic stories of gods, goddesses, heroes & monsters, 2011). The Constellation and Stars According to seasky.org the constellation Aries is located at 2.66 hours right ascension and 20.09 degrees declination ("December Constellations"). However as found on table #1 below the brightest star in Aries (Hamal) is located at about 2 hours RA and 23 degrees DEC, just a little off. As seen in figure #1, to the right, Aries is bordered by Perseus, Triangulum, Pisces, Cetus, and Taurus. Perseus is known for beheading medusa and saving Andromeda, (located just above Triangulum) from the sea God Cetus the sea monster sent by Poseidon to ravage the coast of Cepheus’s territory. Triangulum is a small constellation above Aries that is named for its three brightest stars that make a long skinny triangle. Pisces is the representation of two fish that escaped the wrath of Typhon and is seen in the night sky as two fish tied together. Taurus represents another one of Zeus’s disguises, the one where he carried away Europa, Zeus disguised himself as a bull and is therefore seen as a bull in the night sky. Image # 1 ("First Point of Aries") Aries is visible between latitudes 90 and minus 60 degrees, (however most websites say it’s a northern constellation) and is best seen in December around 21:00, or 9:00 PM. As stated on space.com Aries is a mid-sized constellation and ranks 39th in size, among the 88 modern constellations, with a whopping 441 square degrees (Zimmermann, "Aries Constellation: Facts About the Ram"). Although Aries is called the ram I think it’s extremely hard to see a ram out of the stars in the constellation. As seen in image # 2 to the right the three brightest stars merely make out a line from one side of the ram to the other and in my opinion the rest could be filled in with any drawing you choose. Image # 2 ("Pics about Space") Primary Stars On Table #1 below is found the name, right ascension, declination, visual magnitude, distance in light years, and spectral class of the 20 brightest stars found in Aries. Table #1 ("List of stars in Aries") Deep Sky Objects There are a few deep sky objects in Aries worth mentioning; NGC 772, a pair of galaxies NGC 678 and 680, and even meteor showers. All of the deep sky objects above can be seen through an amateur telescope but because of the huge distance Aries is found from earth many of Name RA DEC Vis. Mag. Distance (ly) Spectral Class α Ari Hamal 02h 07m 10.29s +23° 27′ 46.0″ 2.01 66 K2III β Ari Sheratan 01h 54m 38.35s +20° 48′ 29.9″ 2.64 60 A5V... 41 Ari Bharani 02h 49m 58.99s +27° 15′ 38.8″ 3.61 159 B8Vn δ Ari Botein 03h 11m 37.67s +19° 43′ 36.1″ 4.35 168 K2IIIvar HD 20644 03h 20m 20.37s +29° 02′ 54.6″ 4.47 640 K2II-III 39 Ari 02h 47m 54.44s +29° 14′ 50.7″ 4.52 181 K1III γ2 Ari 01h 53m 31.80s +19° 17′ 45.0″ 4.62 164.0 kA0hA3(IV)SiSr 35 Ari 02h 43m 27.11s +27° 42′ 25.8″ 4.65 370 B3V γ1 Ari 01h 53m 31.77s +19° 17′ 38.7″ 4.70 164.0 B9.5IV λ Ari 01h 57m 55.78s +23° 35′ 45.9″ 4.79 133 F0V ζ Ari 03h 14m 54.11s +21° 02′ 40.7″ 4.87 340 A1V 14 Ari 02h 09m 25.29s +25° 56′ 23.9″ 4.98 320 F2III κ Ari 02h 06m 33.91s +22° 38′ 54.3″ 5.03 187 A2m ι Ari 01h 57m 21.03s +17° 49′ 03.3″ 5.09 659 K1p... τ2 Ari 03h 22m 45.27s +20° 44′ 31.6″ 5.10 319 K3III 38 Ari 02h 44m 57.51s +12° 26′ 45.5″ 5.18 125 A7III-IV ε Ari A 02h 59m 12.70s +21° 20′ 25.0″ 5.2 332 A2Vs η Ari 02h 12m 47.98s +21° 12′ 39.5″ 5.23 98 F5V π Ari 02h 49m 17.56s +17° 27′ 51.6″ 5.26 603 B6V τ1 Ari 03h 21m 13.61s +21° 08′ 49.7″ 5.27 462 B5IV the other deep sky objects can’t (“Home”). However there are still some pretty cool pictures of some of these galaxies. NGC 772 (image # 3) is both the largest and brightest of the galaxies located inside of Aries borders and is therefore the easiest to see. 772 has an apparent magnitude of 10.3 and is located nearly 130 million light years from earth it’s RA is 01h 59m 19.6s its DEC is +19deg 00’ 27’’ and is an SA(s)b galaxy. This galaxy has many spiral arms giving it the classification of a spiral galaxy. “Most notable is, however, a prominent elongated outer spiral arm, which has likely arisen due to tidal interactions with the nearby dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 770. Image # 3 ("NGC 772, an unbarred spiral galaxy in Aries") This unusual long arm shows lots of young blue star clusters. But NGC 772 also possesses many weak, tightly coiled arms which, although well formed, are relatively smooth, indicating only a small current rate of star formation. The relatively smooth multiple arms on the opposite side from the prominent arm are defined primarily by spiral dust lanes.” (“NGC 772, an unbarred spiral galaxy in Aries”). Also found within the borders of Aries is a pair of galaxies, NGC 678 and NGC 680 (image # 4) both are apart of the group called NGC 691 both galaxies are located aproximetly 130 million light years away. These galaxies are really cool because they interact with eacother and look awsome in a photograph. NGC 678 has a magnitude of 13.35, has a diameter of 171,000 light years, and is classified as SB(s)b: sp. NGC 680 has a magnitude of 12.9, has a diamiter of on 72,000 light years, and is classified as E+ pec. “NGC 678 is an edge-on spiral galaxy that is 4.5 by 0.8 arcminutes. NGC 680, an elliptical galaxy with an asymmetrical boundary, is the Image # 4 ("Aries") brighter of the two at magnitude 12.9; NGC 678 has a magnitude of 13.35.” (“Aries (Constellation)”). Aries also finds itself home to a few meteor showers that come streaming down into Earth’s atmosphere (image # 5). Only very few are ever seen because the sun is above the horizon when Earth feels the effects. “The Daytime Arietid meteor shower is one of the strongest meteor showers that occurs during the day, lasting from 22 May to 2 June. It is an Image # 5 ("Arietid meteor shower") annual shower associated with the Marsden group of comets that peaks on 7 June with a maximum zenithal hourly rate of 54 meteors. Its parent body may be the asteroid Icarus. The meteors are sometimes visible before dawn, because the radiant is 32 degrees away from the Sun. They usually appear at a rate of 1–2 per hour as "earthgrazers", meteors that last several seconds and often begin at the horizon. Because most of the Daytime Arietids are not visible to the naked eye, they are observed in the radio spectrum. This is possible because of the ionized gas they leave in their wake.” (“Aries (Constellation)”). Bibliography Aries. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.peoplesguidetothecosmos.com/constellations/aries.htm Aries (Constellation). (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aries_(constellation) Aries Constellation. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/aries-constellation/ Arietid meteor shower. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://spaceweather.com/meteors/arietids.html December Constellations. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.seasky.org/constellations/constellations-december.html First Point of Aries. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Point_of_Aries Home. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://freestarcharts.com/14-guides/constellation/370-aries-constellation-guide List of stars in Aries. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_Aries NGC 772, an unbarred spiral galaxy in Aries. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://annesastronomynews.com/photo-gallery-ii/galaxies-clusters/ngc-772/ Napoli, D., & Balit, C. (2011). Treasury of Greek mythology: Classic stories of gods, goddesses, heroes & monsters. Washington: National Geographic Society. Pics about Space. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://pics-about-space.com/aries-constellation-nasa?p=2# Zimmermann, K. (n.d.). Aries Constellation: Facts About the Ram. Retrieved November 29, 2015, from http://www.space.com/17052-aries-constellation.html