UPDATE: Solved by Jon at 12:21
Howdy, howdy, howdy. I trust your week has been productive, and you’re ready to sit and warm up those neurons. Can’t have lukewarm neurons sitting around, now can we?
Jumping right into this week’s riddle, for which I know you’re prepared, you’re looking for something in the real world today.
Recognize this gentleman?
We think of this object in the singular, but it is actually composed of several distinct parts.
Our ancestors would have known about this.
It is a useful tool for calibration of instruments.
Image found on PhotoBucket
Although old, it’s also very young.
Thought for a long time to be traveling with a friend, it is now known to be passing through the friend’s neighborhood; soon to leave it behind.
Not permanently bound, this will disperse in about 250 million years.
Image from Amazon.com
Depending upon how you interpret it, this could be the sailing ones or the flock of doves.
It occupies an important place in mythology.
Orion might one day be stepping on this.
Image released to public domain
We would feel right at home in parts of this.
There is somewhat of a connection with this and last week’s riddle.
This makes an appearance in an unusual Christmas story.
And that’s that! Get your guesses in quickly, because I don’t anticipate this riddle remaining open for long. Meanwhile, I’ll be lurking in my usual Saturday location.
…
Hugo solved the riddle in my email at 12:13.
I will guess Pleiades
Jon – Very good! You got it!
Did you doubt for a second that the answer was the Pleiades? Hopefully, I made you think in more detail about this lovely open cluster. Requested as a post subject last week, I found I had written about the Pleiades too recently to do a repeat post, so I turned it into a riddle. Here’s the breakdown on the clues:
We think of the Pleiades as one object, but as you know it is composed of many stars.
The major formation (the seven sisters and the parents, nine stars total) is visible to the unaided eye.
You can calibrate for distance, since the Pleiades is so close (relatively, of course).
About 100 million years old; young for a star.
The “friend” is the Maia Reflection Nebula, now known to be unrelated to the cluster. Just a dusty area in space through which the cluster is currently passing.
Although the cluster is related, the stars are slowly drifting apart.
That depends on how you translate the root word.
Boy, I’ll say! Mention of the Pleiades shows up just about everywhere, in all cultures.
As seen from Earth, one day the cluster will appear to be positioned at Orion’s feet.
Some of the stars in the cluster (not the main nine in the formation) are just like the Sun.
It was requested as a post subject last week.
The Pleiades are featured in a Christmas story in the book Mary Poppins.
The Images:
That’s Homer; the Pleiades show up in the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey”.
Blue light, for hot, blue stars.
Pleiades rising is a reference in Geoponika.
“Thuraya” is the Arabian name for the Pleiades.
Do you have a subject you’d like me to write about?
Yikes…I solved the riddle a few weeks ago…I should have sent an email instead.
Anyway, how about going over the role that
astronomy plays in mythology
or your choice!
Astronomy in mythology… hmmm. I think I can narrow that down to an interesting post. Good idea!