The Coma Star Cluster in Coma Berenices, designated Melotte 111 after its entry in the catalogue of deep sky objects by P. J. Melotte, is a small but nearby star cluster in our galaxy, containing about 40 brighter stars (magnitude 5 to 10) with a common proper motion. The Hipparcos satellite and infrared color-magnitude diagram fitting have been used to establish a distance to the cluster's center of ~86 pc. The distance established via the independent analyses agree, thereby making the cluster an important rung on the cosmic distance ladder. The open cluster is roughly twice as distant as the Hyades and covers an area of more than 7.5 degrees on the sky. The cluster is approximately 450 million years old. In the FOV of a good field glass most of its stars can be seen simultaneously. The brighter stars of the cluster make out a distinctive "V" shape as seen when Coma Berenices is rising.
It used to represent Leo's tail, but Ptolemy III, in around 240 BC, renamed it for the Egyptian queen Berenice's sacrifice of her hair in a legend.
Famous quotes containing the words coma, star and/or cluster:
“A coma that is a white, interesting country ...”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,
This fallen star my milk sustains,
This love that makes my heart’s blood stop
Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones
And bids my hair stand up?”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Next week Reagan will probably announce that American scientists have discovered that the entire U.S. agricultural surplus can be compacted into a giant tomato one thousand miles across, which will be suspended above the Kremlin from a cluster of U.S. satellites flying in geosynchronous orbit. At the first sign of trouble the satellites will drop the tomato on the Kremlin, drowning the fractious Muscovites in ketchup.”
—Alexander Cockburn (b. 1941)