Andromeda (constellation) facts for kids
| Constellation | |
List of stars in Andromeda
|
|
| Abbreviation | And |
|---|---|
| Genitive | Andromedae |
| Pronunciation | genitive |
| Symbolism | Andromeda, the Woman Chained |
| Right ascension | 1 |
| Declination | +40 |
| Quadrant | NQ1 |
| Area | 722 sq. deg. (19th) |
| Main stars | 4, 18 |
| Bayer/Flamsteed stars |
65 |
| Stars with planets | 8 |
| Stars brighter than 3.00m | 3 |
| Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly) | 3 |
| Brightest star | α And (Alpheratz) (2.07m) |
| Messier objects | 3 |
| Meteor showers | Andromedids (Bielids) |
| Bordering constellations |
Perseus Cassiopeia Lacerta Pegasus Pisces Triangulum |
| Visible at latitudes between +90° and −40°. Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of November. |
|
Andromeda is a constellation in the northern sky. It is named after the princess Andromeda in Greek mythology. It is sometimes called "Princess of Ethiopia" or "the Chained Woman" in English. It has also been called Persea ("Perseus's wife") or Cepheis ("Cepheus's daughter"). The astronomer named Ptolemy listed Andromeda when he made a list of 48 constellations. It is also one of the 88 constellations made by the International Astronomical Union.
The Andromeda Galaxy is inside Andromeda. It is the closest spiral galaxy to Earth, at about 2.2 million light-years from Earth (estimates range up to 2.5 million light-years). The brightest star in Andromeda is called Alpha Andromedae, which is a binary star.
Images for kids
-
Johannes Hevelius's depiction of Andromeda, from the 1690 edition of his Uranographia. As was conventional for celestial atlases of the time, the constellation is a mirror image of modern maps as it was drawn from a perspective outside the celestial sphere.
-
Andromeda depicted in an early scientific manuscript, c.1000
-
Andromeda as it appears in the night sky, with the superimposed figure.
-
A Hertzsprung-Russel diagram for stars brighter than 4th magnitude in the constellation Andromeda (axes not labelled).
-
M31, the Great Galaxy of Andromeda.
-
Sharp view of the Andromeda Galaxy
-
The Blue Snowball Nebula as seen through the Hubble Space Telescope.
See also
In Spanish: Andrómeda (constelación) para niños
