Amazing things are happening in Cassiopeia

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided a glimpse into distant nebulae. The pictures taken with it are an excellent source of information for astronomers. But they are also stunning.

Cassiopeia and Milkyway — [Photo: Everglades NPS from Homestead, Florida, United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

Cassiopeia is a relatively small, circumpolar constellation in the northern sky. It has a characteristic shape of a slightly tilted letter “W”. At its central apex lies its brightest star — Gamma Cassiopeiae, about 550 light years distant from Earth. It was one of dozens used for astronavigation by participants in the Apollo program. They named this one their guide.

[Photo: Cjkuhl, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

It is a huge young star with the spectral type BO, which means it is a so-called blue-white giant. It lies in the main sequence of stars observed by man because it is still in the hydrogen burning stage. In a few million years it will explode as a supernova. It is a very variable and irregular star — it often drastically changes its activity and thus its brightness.

Gamma Cassiopeiae — [Photo: Neil Michael Wyatt, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

It is 19 times more massive and 65 thousand times brighter than the Sun, has a…