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Coma Berenices

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A photograph of the Coma Berenices constellation in the night sky.

Coma Berenices

Coma Berenices is a beautiful group of stars in the night sky. It is one of the official constellations and can be found between Leo and Boötes. Its name, "Berenice's Hair," comes from an old story about a queen named Berenice II of Egypt.

People have enjoyed looking at Coma Berenices for a very long time. The famous astronomer Conon of Samos first described it over 2,000 years ago. Later, important astronomers like Tycho Brahe helped make it well-known. It is special because it is the only constellation named after a real person.

Coma Berenices has many interesting stars and objects. One of its brightest stars, Beta Comae Berenices, is about the same size as our Sun. It also has a lovely group of stars called the Coma Star Cluster. If you look up on a clear night, you might see some of these wonderful stars yourself!

Images

A stunning view of the Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565), a spiral galaxy seen edge-on, located about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices.
A stunning view of the Crab Nebula, the remains of a star that exploded long ago, showing colorful clouds of gas and energy.
A sculpture of Berenice II, an ancient queen from the Hellenistic period, displayed in the Glyptothek Museum in Munich.
An old map showing the Virgo and Coma Berenices constellations from a historic celestial globe.
A beautiful photograph of the constellation Coma Berenices, also known as Berenice's Hair, in the night sky.
A beautiful spiral galaxy known as Messier 100, captured in stunning detail by the Hubble Space Telescope.
A stunning view of the Black Eye Galaxy, a spiral galaxy with a dark dust band and bright star-forming regions, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
A stunning space photo of NGC 4789A, a dwarf irregular galaxy filled with a beautiful mix of blue and red stars.
NGC 4651, also called The Umbrella Galaxy, is a beautiful spiral galaxy floating in space.
A stunning view of the galaxy NGC 4495, captured by a powerful telescope to help scientists study stars and space.
A beautiful spiral galaxy known as JW39, showing bright star-forming regions and trailing dust clouds, as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
An artist's impression of HE 1523-0901, one of the oldest known stars in our galaxy, located about 7,500 light-years from Earth.

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Coma Berenices, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.