Cetus constellation Stars

The night sky is decorated with many shimmering constellations. Local observers were able to recognize the east group of stars as the years went on, and they incorporated these findings into their cultures, myths, and folklore.

Visible in the Northern Hemisphere from late fall to early winters at latitudes of +70 and -90, Cetus is the fourth largest constellation in the sky. Best translated as “Great Whale” or “Sea Monster”, Cetus is located around other water-related constellations, Aquarius (Cup-Bearer), Eridanus (The River), and Pisces (The Fishes).

Stars in Cetus Constellation

Alpha Ceti

‘Alpha Ceti’, also known as “Menkar (means nostril in Arabic)” is the second brightest star in the constellation. It is an M1.5llla class red giant with a distance of 67 Parsec from the earth. It is almost 1455 times brighter than the sun, and its’ temperature is about 3,909 degrees, Kelvin.

Lambda Ceti

Lambda Ceti is a B6lll class blue giant star. It is 176.6 Parsec away from earth and has a brightness of 651.11 as compared to the sun. The temperature of the star is 11,677 degrees, Kelvin.

Mu Ceti

Mu Ceti is an A9lll class blue giant 25.83 Parsec away from earth. It is 7.54 times brighter than our sun and burns at 7,225 Kelvins.

Xi2 Ceti

Xi2 Ceti is an A0lll class blue giant with 60.36 Parsec distance from earth. Burning at 10,630 Kelvins, it is 77.44 times brighter than our sun.

Gamma Ceti

Gamma Ceti is probably the most interesting star in this constellation. That is because it is a triple star system 24.4 Parsec away. The A and B components of it are revolving around each other. Meanwhile, the C component lies further away.

Gamma Ceti A is an A3V class blue main-sequence star. Meanwhile, B is an F3V class white main-sequence star. C is a K5V class red dwarf.

The system is 20.91 times more luminous than our sun. Gamma Ceti A, the dominant star has a temperature of 8,673 Kelvin.

Delta Ceti

Delta Ceti is a B2IV class, a blue-white giant at a distance of 199.21 Parsec. At 21,900 Kelvins, Delta Ceti burns 4003.71 times brighter than our sun.

Omicron Ceti

Omicron Ceti is a binary star system 107.06 Parsec from the earth. It is better known as “Mira (wonderful)”. Mira A is an M7llle class red giant star with luminosity ranging between 8,400 to 9,360 that of our sun. It burns at 3,055 Kelvins. Meanwhile, Mira B is a white dwarf of the DA class. It is hydrogen-rich still but might die soon.

Zeta Ceti

Zeta Ceti is a binary star system, 72 Parsec from the earth. Zeta Ceti is known for the A component of its’ system as the B component is often disregarded due to its’ distance. Both the components are K class, red-orange giants. They are 229.44 times brighter than our sun and burn at 4,579 Kelvin.

Theta Ceti

Theta Ceti is a K0lll class red giant star at 34.9 Parsec from the earth. It burns 42.65 times brighter than the sun at 4,660 Kelvins.

Eta Ceti

Eta Ceti is a K1.5lll class red-orange giant at 38 Parsec from the earth. It is 87.14 times brighter than our sun, with a temperature of 4,543 Kelvins.

Tau Ceti

Tau Ceti is a G8V class yellow main-sequence star 3.65 Parsec from the earth. It burns at 4,508 Kelvins and is 0.233 times brighter than our sun. Due to it being similar to our sun, astronomers are interested in it and are carrying numerous researches.

Beta Ceti

Beta Ceti is a K0lll class orange giant at a distance of 29.5 Parsec from the earth. It is the brightest star constellation in the Cetus despite its name. It is also known as Deneb Kaitos, meaning ‘Southern tail of Cetus’ in Arabic. It is 133.77 times brighter than the sun and burns at 4,790 Kelvins.

Lota Ceti

The Lota Ceti is a K1.5lll class white orange giant at a distance of 84.2 Parsec. It is also known as the northern tail of Cetus and is 405.25 times brighter than the sun. It burns at 4,479 Kelvins.

Mythology

In Greek mythology, Cetus was a sea monster who looked like a whale. He was sent as wrath on the Kingdom of ancient Aethiopia by the sea god Poseidon. Poseidon had ordered the monster to destroy the kingdom because the king’s wife had enraged her and the sea nymphs by claiming that she was more beautiful than any of them. Cetus spread its’ terrors at the coast of Aethiopia until the king asked for help from an oracle. The oracle told Cepheus, the kind that her daughter princess Andromeda shall be chained to a rock and sacrificed for Cetus to eat her. Then Cetus won’t destroy the kingdom. The princess was chained to a cliff near the ocean so that Cetus could eat her alive.

Luckily at the time, the monster was rising from the water to devour the princess, Perseus, son of Zeus was flying from above with serpent-haired Medusa’s slain head in his hand. He began loving the princess Andromeda as soon as he saw her. According to some stories, he showed Cetus the head of Medusa, which was horrible enough to turn him into stone. While other stories state that he killed the monster with his poisoned sword.

However, how he killed the monster is not clear but he saved the princess and later married her.