- Pleione (star)
Starbox short
name=Pleione
epoch=J2000.0
constell=Taurus
ra=03h 49m 11.2s
dec=+24° 08' 12"
spectral=B8Vpe
appmag_v=+5.05
dist_ly=440
dist_pc=135
names=28 Tauri, BU Tauri,
HR 1180, HD 23862,
BD+23 558, HIP 17851,
SAO 76229, GC 4587,
CCDM 03492+2408Pleione (or 28 Tauri) is a
star in theconstellation Taurus and a member of the Pleiades star cluster. It is approximately 440light years fromEarth .Pleione is a blue-white B-type main sequence dwarf with a mean
apparent magnitude of +5.05. It is classified as a Gamma Cassiopeiae typevariable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +4.77 to +5.50. Itsvariable star designation is BU Tauri.Purple Pleione
The star is also called Purple Pleione. In the best-selling
1955 nature book published byTime-Life called "The World We Live In" (which insipired tens of thousands of young members of thebaby boom generation to becomescientist s), there is an artist's impression of Pleione in which it is called "Purple Pleione". The star is stated to be a rapidly rotating star and is shown in the illustration as being highly oblated and exhibiting a pale bluish-violet color with a ring of glowingred hydrogen gas around it. The part of the star that is seen through the gas appears amagenta -purple color in the illustration.The caption under the illustration (the original of which is a painting by the famed space artist
Chesley Bonestell ) states:"Purple Pleione, a star of the familiar Pleiades cluster, rotates so rapidly that it has flattened into a flying saucer and hurled forth a dark red ring of hydrogen. Where the excited gas crosses Pleione's equator, it obscures her violet light." [ Barnett, Lincoln and the editorial staff of Life "The World We Live In" New York:1955--Simon and Schuster--Top of Page 284--Illustration by Chesley Bonestell picturing the star Purple Pleione ]References
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