Maia , designated 20 Tauri (abbreviated 20 Tau), is a

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Taurus Taurus is Latin for 'bull' and may refer to: * Taurus (astrology), the astrological sign ** Vṛṣabha, in vedic astrology * Taurus (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Taurus (mythology), one of two Greek mythological ch ...

. It is a

blue giant In astronomy, a blue giant is a hot star with a luminosity class of III (giant) or II (bright giant). In the standard Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, these stars lie above and to the right of the main sequence. The term applies to a variety of ...

spectral type In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the ...

B8 III, a

chemically peculiar star In astrophysics, chemically peculiar stars (CP stars) are stars with distinctly unusual Metallicity, metal abundances, at least in their surface layers. Classification Chemically peculiar stars are common among hot main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) ...

. Maia is the fourth-brightest star in the

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an Asterism (astronomy), asterism of an open cluster, open star cluster containing young Stellar classification#Class B, B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Tau ...

open star cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of tens to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and ...

(Messier 45), after

Alcyone In Greek mythology, Alcyone (or dubiously Halcyone) (; ) and Ceyx (; ) were a wife and husband who incurred the wrath of the god Zeus for their romantic hubris. Etymology Alkyóne comes from alkyón (), which refers to a sea-bird with a mour ...

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

and

Electra Electra, also spelt Elektra (; ; ), is one of the most popular Greek mythology, mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, ''Electra (Sophocles play), Electra'' by Sophocles and ''Ele ...

. It is surrounded by one of the brighter

reflection nebula In astronomy, reflection nebulae are interstellar cloud, clouds of Cosmic dust, interstellar dust which might reflect the light of a nearby star or stars. The energy from the nearby stars is insufficient to Ionization, ionize the gas of the nebu ...

e within the Pleiades, designated NGC 1432 and sometimes called the Maia Nebula.

Nomenclature

The name ''Maia'' originates with the and .

Maia Maia (; Ancient Greek: Μαῖα; also spelled Maie, ; ), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes, one of the major Greek gods, by Zeus, the king of Olympus. Family Maia is the daughter of A ...

is one of the seven daughters of

and Pleione in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

—stars which are also included in the Pleiades star cluster. In 2016, the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

organized a

Working Group on Star Names The International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) in May 2016 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars for the international astronomical community. It operates under Division C – Education ...

(WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included ''Maia'' for this star. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. ''20 Tauri'' is the star's

Flamsteed designation A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the 88 modern constellations, modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named after John Flamsteed, au ...

. Although it is about the 15th brightest star in Taurus, Maia does not have a

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek alphabet, Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive case, genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer design ...

, but does have the

Bright Star Catalogue The Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars, Yale Bright Star Catalogue, or just YBS, is a star catalogue that lists all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the na ...

designation HR 1149 and the

Henry Draper Catalogue The ''Henry Draper Catalogue'' (HD) is an astronomical star catalogue published between 1918 and 1924, giving spectroscopic classifications for 225,300 stars; it was later expanded by the ''Henry Draper Extension'' (HDE), published between 192 ...

designation HD 23408. It has been listed as double star WDS J03458+2422; one companion is a 14th magnitude star nearly away that is probably an unrelated background object. The primary is listed as being double following observations of a

lunar occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks f ...

, but later observations have failed to find any evidence of it being double.

Description

The distance to Maia has been measured by the

Gaia spacecraft ''Gaia'' was a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) that was launched in 2013 and operated until March 2025. The spacecraft was designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented ...

using the

annual parallax Stellar parallax is the apparent shift of position (''parallax'') of any nearby star (or other object) against the background of distant stars. By extension, it is a method for determining the distance to the star through trigonometry, the stel ...

method. In

Gaia Data Release 2 The ''Gaia'' catalogues are star catalogues created using the results obtained by ''Gaia (spacecraft), Gaia'' space telescope. The catalogues are released in stages that will contain increasing amounts of information; the early releases also mis ...

, the parallax is given as , corresponding to a distance of . The 2007 new

Hipparcos ''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions and distances of ...

reduction gives a statistically more accurate parallax of , indicating a distance of . Analysis of Gaia parallaxes for the whole Pleiades cluster give an average distance of , while

VLBI Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telescopes on Earth or in space. T ...

measurements of multiple members give a distance of . Maia's

visual magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction of the object's light ca ...

is 3.87, requiring darker skies to be seen. Its bolometric

luminosity Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic energy per unit time, and is synonymous with the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electroma ...

is 501 times that of the sun, mostly in the

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

, thus suggesting a radius of 3.6 times that of the Sun and a mass of 3.8 solar masses. Interferometric measurements give an angular diameter of , suggesting a radius of assuming a distance of . These measurements also allow the

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

to be estimated at . Maia is a

, meaning it has an unusual surface abundance of some elements as shown by its

spectral lines A spectral line is a weaker or stronger region in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum. It may result from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used ...

. It is classified as a helium-weak star, but it also shows an excess of some elements including manganese. MaiaLightCurve

Maia was thought to be a

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are ...

by astronomer

Otto Struve Otto Lyudvigovich Struve (; 12 August 1897 – 6 April 1963) was a Russian-American astronomer of Baltic German origin. Otto was the descendant of famous astronomers of the Struve family; he was the son of Ludwig Struve, grandson of Otto Wilhel ...

. He proposed a class of stars known as Maia variables, which included

Gamma Ursae Minoris Gamma Ursae Minoris (γ Ursae Minoris, abbreviated Gamma UMi, γ UMi), also named Pherkad , is a star in the northern constellation of Ursa Minor. Together with Beta Ursae Minoris (Kochab), it forms the end of the dipper pan of the "Litt ...

. Examination of the ''

'' data for Maia and some others in the class found no evidence of variability. On the other hand, White ''et al.'' found low amplitude, but unambiguous, variability in Maia's brightness as seen by ''Kepler''/K2, with a period of 10.3 days, which they attribute to the rotation of a

starspot Starspots are stellar phenomena, so-named by analogy with sunspots. Spots as small as sunspots have not been detected on other stars, as they would cause undetectably small fluctuations in brightness. The commonly observed starspots are in gene ...

. Intense study of large numbers of stars suggest that 6.7% of stars with temperatures between and show rapid small-amplitude pulsations but are not members of other variable star classes. These are potentially Maia variables. It is now thought Maia is not a Maia variable, but a

rotating variable A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are ...

. Maia is surrounded by the Maia Nebula (also known as NGC 1432), a

that is one of the brightest patches of nebulosity within the Pleiades star cluster. It is the only member of the

New General Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxy, galaxies, star cluste ...

discovered photographically.

Mythology

Hermes Maia Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2304

Maia was the oldest of seven beautiful sisters known as the

. She was impregnated by Zeus, thereby conceiving Hermes, the messenger god. As Maia and the Pleiades are visible in the winter night sky along with the

Orion Orion may refer to: Common meanings * Orion (constellation), named after the mythical hunter * Orion (mythology), a hunter in Greek mythology Arts and media Fictional entities Characters and species * Orion (character), a DC Comics c ...

, the Greek

myths Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

tell of Maia and her sisters being pursued by the giant huntsman and turned into doves to preserve their safety.

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

, ''Works and Days'' 619ff.

References

External links

*Jim Kaler's Stars, University of Illinoi
Maia (20 Tauri)
*High-resolution LRGB image based on 4 hrs total exposure

* APOD Pictures: **1
Orion, the giant huntsman, in pursuit of the Pleiades
**2

**3

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maia (Star) B-type giants Tauri, 020 Pleiades Taurus (constellation) Suspected variables

1149 Year 1149 ( MCXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – Emperor Manuel I (Komnenos) recovers Corfu with the help of the Venetians, who defeat the Sicilian ...

023408 017573 BD+23 0516 NGC objects