Merope is a star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 in the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Taurus

Taurus (constellation)

Taurus is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is a Latin word meaning 'bull', and its astrological symbol is a stylized bull's head:...

 and a member of the Pleiades

Pleiades (star cluster)

In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters , is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...

 star cluster

Open cluster

An open cluster is a group of up 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 many more are thought to exist...

. It is approximately 360 light years

Light Years

Light Years is the seventh studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. It was released on 25 September 2000 by Parlophone and Mushroom Records. The album's style was indicative of her return to "mainstream pop dance tunes"....

 from Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

.

Merope is a blue-white B-type

Stellar classification

In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure...

 subgiant with a mean apparent magnitude

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 of +4.14. Richard Hinckley Allen described the star as lucid white and violet. It has a luminosity

Luminosity

Luminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...

 of 630 times that of the Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

 and a surface temperature of 14,000 kelvin

Kelvin

The kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. It is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units and is assigned the unit symbol K. The Kelvin scale is an absolute, thermodynamic temperature scale using as its null point absolute zero, the temperature at which all...

s. Merope's mass is roughly 4.5 solar mass

Solar mass

The solar mass , , is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, used to indicate the masses of other stars and galaxies...

es and has a radius more than 4 times as great as the Sun's. It is classified as a Beta Cephei type

Beta Cephei variable

Beta Cephei variables are variable stars which exhibit variations in their brightness due to pulsations of the stars' surfaces. The point of maximum brightness roughly corresponds to the maximum contraction of the star. Typically, Beta Cephei variables change in brightness by 0.01 to 0.3...

 variable star

Variable star

A star is classified as variable if its apparent magnitude as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth...

 and its brightness varies by 0.01 magnitudes.

Surrounding Merope is the Merope Nebula

NGC 1435

The Merope Nebula is a diffuse reflection nebula, possibly a supernova remnant, in the Pleiades star cluster, surrounding the 4th magnitude star Merope. It was discovered on October 19, 1859 by the German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel...

. Part of the nebula

Nebula

A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...

 that the Pleiades Cluster is currently passing through, it appears brightest around Merope and is listed in the Index Catalogue

Index Catalogue

The Index Catalogue —also known as the Index Catalogue of Nebulae, the Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, IC I, or IC II— is a catalogue of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters that serves as a supplement to the New General Catalogue...

 as number IC 349.

See also

• Lists of stars in the constellation Taurus
• Class B Stars
• Beta Cephei Variable Stars
  Beta Cephei variable
  Beta Cephei variables are variable stars which exhibit variations in their brightness due to pulsations of the stars' surfaces. The point of maximum brightness roughly corresponds to the maximum contraction of the star. Typically, Beta Cephei variables change in brightness by 0.01 to 0.3...
  
  

External links

• Jim Kaler's Stars, University of Illinois:Merope (23 Tauri)
• NGC 1435 - Merope Nebula LRGB image with 4 hours total exposure.