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Alpha Ceti

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Alpha Ceti ( α Ceti , abbreviated Alpha Cet , α Cet ), officially named Menkar / ˈ m ɛ ŋ k ɑːr / , is the second-brightest star in the constellation of Cetus . It is a cool luminous red giant estimated to be about 250 light years away based on parallax .

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47-541: Alpha Ceti is the star's Bayer designation . It has the traditional name Menkar, deriving from the Arabic word منخر manħar "nostril" (of Cetus). In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (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

94-458: A conventional genitive case. That is, Modern English indicates a genitive construction with either the possessive clitic suffix " - 's ", or a prepositional genitive construction such as "x of y". However, some irregular English pronouns do have possessive forms which may more commonly be described as genitive (see English possessive ). The names of the astronomical constellations have genitive forms which are used in star names, for example

141-416: A to avoid confusion with α ). However, a number of stars in southern constellations have uppercase letter designations, like B Centauri and G Scorpii . These letters were assigned by later astronomers, notably Lacaille in his Coelum Australe Stelliferum and Gould in his Uranometria Argentina . Lacaille followed Bayer's use of Greek letters, but this was insufficient for many constellations. He used first

188-513: A Latin letter (A, b, c, etc.) to each star he catalogued, combined with the Latin name of the star's parent constellation in genitive (possessive) form. The constellation name is frequently abbreviated to a standard three-letter form. For example, Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus (the Bull) is designated α Tauri (abbreviated α Tau , pronounced Alpha Tauri ), which means "Alpha of

235-491: A different constellation. Bayer's Gamma and Omicron Scorpii, for example, were later reassigned from Scorpius to Libra and given the new names Sigma and Upsilon Librae . (To add to the confusion, the star now known as Omicron Scorpii was not named by Bayer but was assigned the designation o Scorpii (Latin lowercase 'o') by Lacaille—which later astronomers misinterpreted as omicron once Bayer's omicron had been reassigned to Libra.) A few stars no longer lie (according to

282-457: A grammatical case, although they are sometimes referred to as genitives or as belonging to a possessive case . One of the reasons that the status of ' s as a case ending is often rejected is that it does not behave as such, but rather as a clitic marking that indicates that a dependency relationship exists between phrases. One can say the King's war , but also the King of France's war , where

329-467: A magnitude. Menkar (AK-123) was a United States Navy Crater class cargo ship named after the star. Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. The brighter stars were assigned their first systematic names by

376-803: A synchronic mutation of a final m into n in Finnish, e.g. genitive sydämen vs. nominative sydän .) This homophony has exceptions in Finnish , where a separate accusative -(e)t is found in pronouns, e.g. kenet "who (telic object)", vs. kenen "whose". A difference is also observed in some of the related Sámi languages , where the pronouns and the plural of nouns in the genitive and accusative are easily distinguishable from each other, e.g., kuä'cǩǩmi "eagles' (genitive plural)" and kuä'cǩǩmid "eagles (accusative plural)" in Skolt Sami . The genitive singular definite article for masculine and neuter nouns

423-439: Is des , while the feminine and plural definite article is der . The indefinite articles are eines for masculine and neuter nouns, and einer for feminine and plural nouns (although the bare form cannot be used in the plural, it manifests in keiner , meiner , etc.) Singular masculine and neuter nouns of the strong declension in the genitive case are marked with -(e)s . Generally, one-syllable nouns favour

470-416: Is as follows: The genitive personal pronouns are quite rare and either very formal, literary or outdated. They are as follows (with comparison to the nominative pronouns): Some examples: Unlike the personal ones, the genitive relative pronouns are in regular use and are as follows (with comparison to the nominative relative pronouns): Some examples: The genitive case is often used to show possession or

517-402: Is homophonic to the genitive case. This case does not indicate possession, but is a syntactic marker for the object, additionally indicating that the action is telic (completed). In Estonian , it is often said that only a "genitive" exists. However, the cases have completely different functions, and the form of the accusative has developed from * -(e)m . (The same sound change has developed into

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564-431: Is left in the nominative case. For example: If the possessor is not the predicate of the sentence, the genitive is not used. Instead, the possessive suffixes ( -(j)e or -(j)a in the third person singular, depending on vowel harmony ) mark the possessed object. The possessor is left in the nominative if it directly precedes the possessed object (otherwise it takes a dative -nak/-nek suffix). For example: In addition,

611-446: Is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun , as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. For example, some verbs may feature arguments in the genitive case; and the genitive case may also have adverbial uses (see adverbial genitive ). The genitive construction includes

658-399: The -es ending, and it is obligatory with nouns ending with a sibilant such as s or z . Otherwise, a simple -s ending is usual. Feminine and plural nouns remain uninflected: Singular masculine nouns (and one neuter noun) of the weak declension are marked with an -(e)n (or rarely -(e)ns ) ending in the genitive case: The declension of adjectives in the genitive case

705-591: The Chinese name for α Ceti itself is 天囷一 ( Tiān Qūn yī , English: the First Star of Circular Celestial Granary .) Despite having the Bayer designation α Ceti, at visual magnitude 2.54 this star is actually not the brightest star in the constellation Cetus . That honor goes instead to Beta Ceti at magnitude 2.04. Menkar is a red giant with a stellar classification of M1.5 IIIa. It has more than twice

752-552: The Kansai dialect of Japanese will in rare cases allow accusative case to convert to genitive, if specific conditions are met in the clause in which the conversion appears. This is referred to as "Accusative-Genitive conversion." The genitive is one of the cases of nouns and pronouns in Latin . Latin genitives still have certain modern scientific uses: The Irish language also uses a genitive case ( tuiseal ginideach ). For example, in

799-630: The Turkic languages . Depending on the language, specific varieties of genitive-noun–main-noun relationships may include: Depending on the language, some of the relationships mentioned above have their own distinct cases different from the genitive. Possessive pronouns are distinct pronouns, found in Indo-European languages such as English, that function like pronouns inflected in the genitive. They are considered separate pronouns if contrasting to languages where pronouns are regularly inflected in

846-441: The main sequence after exhausting the hydrogen at its core. It has also exhausted its core helium, becoming an asymptotic giant branch star , and will probably become a highly unstable star like Mira before finally shedding its outer layers and forming a planetary nebula , leaving a relatively large white dwarf remnant. It has been observed to periodically vary in brightness, but only with an amplitude of about one hundredth of

893-510: The mass of the Sun and, as a giant star , has expanded to about 100 times the Sun's radius . The large area of the photosphere means that it is emitting about 1,765 times as much energy as the Sun, even though the effective temperature is only 3,738  K (compared to 5,778 K on the Sun ). The relatively low temperature gives Menkar the red hue of an M-type star. Menkar has evolved from

940-619: The Bull". Bayer used Greek letters for the brighter stars, but the Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters, while a single constellation may contain fifty or more stars visible to the naked eye. When the Greek letters ran out, Bayer continued with Latin letters: uppercase A , followed by lowercase b through z (omitting j and v , but o was included), for a total of another 24 letters. Bayer did not label "permanent" stars with uppercase letters (except for A , which he used instead of

987-519: The German astronomer Johann Bayer in 1603, in his star atlas Uranometria . Bayer catalogued only a few stars too far south to be seen from Germany, but later astronomers (including Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and Benjamin Apthorp Gould ) supplemented Bayer's catalog with entries for southern constellations. Bayer assigned a lowercase Greek letter (alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ), etc.) or

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1034-628: The Greek letters, Bayer sometimes used the leftover Greek letters for miscellaneous labels as well. Ptolemy designated four stars as "border stars", each shared by two constellations: Alpheratz (in Andromeda and Pegasus ), Elnath (in Taurus and Auriga ), Nu Boötis ( Nu and Nu )(in Boötes and Hercules ) and Fomalhaut (in Piscis Austrinus and Aquarius ). Bayer assigned

1081-566: The Tropic of Cancer. In Cygnus , for example, Bayer's fixed stars run through g , and on this chart Bayer employs H through P as miscellaneous labels, mostly for neighboring constellations. Bayer did not intend such labels as catalog designations, but some have survived to refer to astronomical objects: P Cygni for example is still used as a designation for Nova Cyg 1600. Tycho's Star ( SN 1572 ), another "temporary star", appears as B Cassiopeiae. In charts for constellations that did not exhaust

1128-572: The WGSN; which included Menkar for this star. This star, along with γ Cet (Kaffaljidhma), δ Cet , λ Cet (also Menkar), μ Cet , ξ Cet and ξ Cet were Al Kaff al Jidhmah , "the Part of a Hand". In Chinese , 天囷 ( Tiān Qūn ), meaning Circular Celestial Granary , refers to an asterism consisting of α Ceti, κ Ceti , λ Ceti , μ Ceti , ξ Ceti , ξ Ceti , ν Ceti , γ Ceti , δ Ceti , 75 Ceti , 70 Ceti , 63 Ceti and 66 Ceti . Consequently,

1175-512: The assignment of those letters to variable stars or have actually turned out to be variable. In most constellations, Bayer assigned Greek and Latin letters to stars within a constellation in rough order of apparent brightness , from brightest to dimmest. The order is not necessarily a precise labeling from brightest to dimmest: in Bayer's day stellar brightness could not be measured precisely. Instead, stars were traditionally assigned to one of six magnitude classes (the brightest to first magnitude,

1222-451: The chain of stars π , π , π , π , π and π Orionis . The most stars given the same Bayer designation but with an extra number attached to it is Psi Aurigae . ( ψ , ψ , ψ , ψ , ψ , ψ , ψ , ψ , ψ , ψ , although according to the modern IAU constellation boundaries, ψ lies in Lynx ). Genitive case In grammar , the genitive case ( abbreviated gen )

1269-402: The designation "Alpha". A good example is the constellation Gemini , where Pollux is Beta Geminorum and the slightly dimmer Castor is Alpha Geminorum. In addition, Bayer did not always follow the magnitude class rule; he sometimes assigned letters to stars according to their location within a constellation, or the order of their rising, or to historical or mythological details. Occasionally

1316-434: The dimmest to sixth), and Bayer typically ordered stars within a constellation by class: all the first-magnitude stars (in some order), followed by all the second-magnitude stars, and so on. Within each magnitude class, Bayer made no attempt to arrange stars by relative brightness. As a result, the brightest star in each class did not always get listed first in Bayer's order—and the brightest star overall did not necessarily get

1363-452: The first three of these stars a Greek letter from both constellations: Alpha Andromedae = Delta Pegasi , Beta Tauri = Gamma Aurigae , and Nu Boötis = Psi Herculis . (He catalogued Fomalhaut only once, as Alpha Piscis Austrini .) When the International Astronomical Union (IAU) assigned definite boundaries to the constellations in 1930, it declared that stars and other celestial objects can belong to only one constellation. Consequently,

1410-591: The genitive case may be found in inclusio – that is, between the main noun's article and the noun itself. Old English had a genitive case, which has left its mark in modern English in the form of the possessive ending ' s (now sometimes referred to as the "Saxon genitive"), as well as possessive adjective forms such as his , their , etc., and in certain words derived from adverbial genitives such as once and afterwards . (Other Old English case markers have generally disappeared completely.) The modern English possessive forms are not normally considered to represent

1457-422: The genitive case, but is a broader category. Placing a modifying noun in the genitive case is one way of indicating that it is related to a head noun , in a genitive construction. However, there are other ways to indicate a genitive construction. For example, many Afroasiatic languages place the head noun (rather than the modifying noun) in the construct state . Possessive grammatical constructions, including

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1504-421: The genitive is marked with -n , e.g. maa – maan "country – of the country". The stem may change, however, with consonant gradation and other reasons. For example, in certain words ending in consonants, -e- is added, e.g. mies – miehen "man – of the man", and in some, but not all words ending in -i , the -i is changed to an -e- , to give -en , e.g. lumi – lumen "snow – of

1551-458: The genitive marker is attached to the full noun phrase the King of France , whereas case markers are normally attached to the head of a phrase. In languages having a true genitive case, such as Old English, this example may be expressed as þes cynges wyrre of France , literally "the King's war of France", with the ' s attaching to the King . Finnic languages ( Finnish , Estonian , etc.) have genitive cases. In Finnish, prototypically

1598-430: The genitive. For example, English my is either a separate possessive adjective or an irregular genitive of I , while in Finnish, for example, minun is regularly agglutinated from minu- "I" and -n (genitive). In some languages, nouns in the genitive case also agree in case with the nouns they modify (that is, it is marked for two cases). This phenomenon is called suffixaufnahme . In some languages, nouns in

1645-600: The latter is usually the brighter. (Betelgeuse is a variable star and can at its maximum occasionally outshine Rigel.) Bayer then repeated the procedure for the stars of the 2nd magnitude, labeling them from gamma through zeta in "top-down" (north-to-south) order. Letters as far as Latin p were used for stars of the sixth magnitude. Although Bayer did not use uppercase Latin letters (except A ) for "fixed stars", he did use them to label other items shown on his charts, such as neighboring constellations, "temporary stars", miscellaneous astronomical objects, or reference lines like

1692-591: The lowercase letters, starting with a , and if needed the uppercase letters, starting with A , thus deviating somewhat from Bayer's practice. Lacaille used the Latin alphabet three times over in the large constellation Argo Navis , once for each of the three areas that are now the constellations of Carina , Puppis and Vela . That was still insufficient for the number of stars, so he also used uppercase Latin letters such as N Velorum and Q Puppis . Lacaille assigned uppercase letters between R and Z in several constellations, but these have either been dropped to allow

1739-627: The modern constellation Carina . Norma's Alpha and Beta were reassigned to Scorpius and re-designated N and H Scorpii respectively, leaving Norma with no Alpha. Francis Baily died before designating an Alpha in Leo Minor , so it also has no Alpha. (The star 46 Leonis Minoris would have been the obvious candidate.) In Orion , Bayer first designated Betelgeuse and Rigel , the two 1st-magnitude stars (those of magnitude 1.5 or less), as Alpha and Beta from north to south, with Betelgeuse (the shoulder) coming ahead of Rigel (the foot), even though

1786-484: The modern constellation boundaries) within the constellation for which they are named. The proper motion of Rho Aquilae , for example, carried it across the boundary into Delphinus in 1992. A further complication is the use of numeric superscripts to distinguish neighboring stars that Bayer (or a later astronomer) labeled with a common letter. Usually these are double stars (mostly optical doubles rather than true binary stars ), but there are some exceptions such as

1833-418: The order looks quite arbitrary. Of the 88 modern constellations, there are at least 30 in which Alpha is not the brightest star, and four of those lack a star labeled "Alpha" altogether. The constellations with no Alpha-designated star include Vela and Puppis —both formerly part of Argo Navis , whose Greek-letter stars were split among three constellations. Canopus , the former α Argus, is now α Carinae in

1880-402: The possessive case, may be regarded as subsets of the genitive construction. For example, the genitive construction "pack of dogs” is similar, but not identical in meaning to the possessive case "dogs' pack" (and neither of these is entirely interchangeable with "dog pack", which is neither genitive nor possessive). Modern English is an example of a language that has a possessive case rather than

1927-466: The redundant second designation in each pair above has dropped out of use. Bayer assigned two stars duplicate names by mistake: Xi Arietis (duplicated as Psi Ceti ) and Kappa Ceti ( Kappa and Kappa ) (duplicated as g Tauri ). He corrected these in a later atlas, and the duplicate names were no longer used. Other cases of multiple Bayer designations arose when stars named by Bayer in one constellation were transferred by later astronomers to

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1974-442: The relation between nouns: A simple s is added to the end of a name: The genitive case is also commonly found after certain prepositions: The genitive case can sometimes be found in connection with certain adjectives: The genitive case is occasionally found in connection with certain verbs (some of which require an accusative before the genitive); they are mostly either formal or legal: The ablative case of Indo-European

2021-530: The singular genitive is sometimes (in a subset of words ending with a vocal in nominative) identical in form to nominative. In Finnish, in addition to the uses mentioned above, there is a construct where the genitive is used to mark a surname. For example, Juhani Virtanen can be also expressed Virtasen Juhani ("Juhani of the Virtanens"). A complication in Finnic languages is that the accusative case -(e)n

2068-402: The snow". The genitive is used extensively, with animate and inanimate possessors. In addition to the genitive, there is also a partitive case (marked -ta/-tä or -a/-ä ) used for expressing that something is a part of a larger mass, e.g. joukko miehiä "a group of men". In Estonian, the genitive marker -n has elided with respect to Finnish. Thus, the genitive always ends with a vowel, and

2115-520: The star Mintaka in the constellation Orion (genitive Orionis) is also known as Delta Orionis or 34 Orionis. Many languages have a genitive case, including Albanian , Arabic , Armenian , Basque , Danish , Dutch , Estonian , Finnish , Georgian , German , Greek , Gothic , Hungarian , Icelandic , Irish , Kannada , Latin , Latvian , Lithuanian , Malayalam , Nepali , Romanian , Sanskrit , Scottish Gaelic , Swedish , Tamil , Telugu , all Slavic languages except Macedonian , and most of

2162-600: The suffix -i ('of') is also used. For example: Japanese construes the genitive by using the grammatical particle no の. It can be used to show a number of relationships to the head noun. For example: The archaic genitive case particle -ga ~が is still retained in certain expressions, place names, and dialects. Possessive ga can also be written as a small ke ( ヶ ), for example in Kasumigaoka ( 霞ヶ丘 ) . Typically, languages have nominative case nouns converting into genitive case. It has been found, however, that

2209-513: Was absorbed into the genitive in Classical Greek. This added to the usages of the "genitive proper", the usages of the "ablatival genitive". The genitive occurs with verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. See also Genitive absolute . The Hungarian genitive is constructed using the suffix -é . The genitive -é suffix is only used with the predicate of a sentence: it serves the role of mine, yours, hers, etc. The possessed object

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