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84-398: The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be leftover material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing. This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at

168-507: A telescope . He thereby discovered that the cluster contains many stars too dim to be seen with the naked eye. He published his observations, including a sketch of the Pleiades showing 36 stars, in his treatise Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610. The Pleiades have long been known to be a physically related group of stars rather than any chance alignment. John Michell calculated in 1767 that

252-437: A 354-day lunar calendar with 29.5 days to the month, rather than the 365-day Gregorian solar calendar, the dates of Matariki vary each year. Māori did not use a single unified lunar calendar, and different iwi might recognise different numbers of months, give them different names, or start the month on the full moon rather than the new moon. There has also always been regional variation across Aotearoa, in which stars signal

336-447: A celebration of its first rising in late June or early July. The rising marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar . Historically, Matariki was usually celebrated for a period of days during the last quarter of the moon of the lunar month Pipiri (around June). The ceremony involved viewing the individual stars for forecasts of the year to come, mourning the deceased of

420-433: A cosmic distance ladder may be constructed. Ultimately astronomers' understanding of the age and future evolution of the universe is influenced by their knowledge of the distance to the Pleiades. Yet some authors argue that the controversy over the distance to the Pleiades discussed below is a red herring , since the cosmic distance ladder can (presently) rely on a suite of other nearby clusters where consensus exists regarding

504-542: A distance between 135 and 140 pc; a dynamical distance from optical interferometric observations of the inner pair of stars within Atlas (a bright triple star in the Pleiades) favors a distance of 133 to 137 pc. However, the author of the 2007–2009 catalog of revised Hipparcos parallaxes reasserted that the distance to the Pleiades is ~120 pc and challenged the dissenting evidence. In 2012, Francis and Anderson proposed that

588-554: A distance of only 118 pc, by measuring the parallax of stars in the cluster—a technique that should yield the most direct and accurate results. Later work consistently argued that the Hipparcos distance measurement for the Pleiades was erroneous: In particular, distances derived to the cluster via the Hubble Space Telescope and infrared color–magnitude diagram fitting (so-called " spectroscopic parallax ") favor

672-569: A festival of abundance and lamps. The Pleiades are also mentioned three times in the Bible . The earliest known depiction of the Pleiades is likely a Northern German Bronze Age artifact known as the Nebra sky disk , dated to approximately 1600 BC. The Babylonian star catalogues name the Pleiades MUL ( 𒀯𒀯 ), meaning "stars" (literally "star star"), and they head the list of stars along

756-406: A gesture of contempt towards his siblings, and flung them into the sky, where they remain, stuck to his father's chest. In Māori tradition the unpredictability of the winds is blamed on Tāwhirimātea's blindness. The word Matariki is the name of both the star cluster and one of the stars within it. Other terms for the cluster as a whole include Te Tautari-nui-o-Matariki ("Matariki fixed in

840-427: A larger catalogue than his scientific rival Lacaille , whose 1755 catalogue contained 42 objects, and so he added some bright, well-known objects to boost the number on his list. Edme-Sébastien Jeaurat then drew in 1782 a map of 64 stars of the Pleiades from his observations in 1779, which he published in 1786. The distance to the Pleiades can be used as a key first step to calibrate the cosmic distance ladder . As

924-600: A new Māori public holiday in the calendar and raise awareness of Māori indigenous knowledge. The bill passed its third reading on 7 April. During the final debate, National MP Paul Goldsmith argued that Matariki should replace a previous public holiday while ACT's Small Business spokesperson Chris Baillie claimed that having a new public holiday would cost businesses NZ$ 453 million. The Bill's sponsor Kiritapu Allan defended Matariki, arguing that public holidays reduced employee burnout and stress while boosting hospitality and tourism. National MP Simon O'Connor suggested naming

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1008-475: A new holiday, to lessen the impact on businesses which is estimated to be NZ$ 448 million annually. The bill passed its second reading on 29 March 2022. During the debate, the National and ACT parties expressed concerns about creating a 12th public holiday; claiming that it would cost NZ$ 450 million and have a negative impact on businesses. The Labour, Green and Māori parties argued that the bill would establish

1092-422: A particular star on the eastern horizon just before dawn, on the night of the new moon: for example, the tenth month, Poutūterangi, is signalled by the heliacal rising of Altair . Matariki's role in signalling the start of the year means it is known as te whetū o te tau ("the star of the year"). The time in midsummer when Matariki is overhead in the night sky is referred to as te paki o Matariki , i.e.

1176-481: A pit on which was placed food, a layer of leaves, and earth. The uncovering of the cooked food released steam which rose into the sky and fed the stars, the steam being the hautapu or sacred offering. The food was chosen to correspond with the domains of the stars in Matariki: these might include kūmara for Tupuānuku, a bird for Tupuārangi, freshwater fish for Waitī, and shellfish for Waitā. The offering of food

1260-522: A prominent sight in winter in the Northern Hemisphere , and are easily visible from mid-southern latitudes. They have been known since antiquity to cultures all around the world, including the Celts ( Welsh : Tŵr Tewdws , Irish : Streoillín ); pre-colonial Filipinos (who called it Mapúlon , Mulo‑pulo or Muró‑púro , among other names), for whom it indicated the beginning of

1344-608: A public holiday that were signed by 30,000 people. On 7 September 2020, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged to make Matariki a public holiday if the Labour Party were re-elected in the 2020 general election . The proposed public holiday would not be implemented until 2022, during which businesses could recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand . On 4 February 2021, Ardern announced

1428-523: A range of ways. These have included concerts, festivals of lights, the illumination of Auckland's Sky Tower , and tree planting. In 2017 Wellington City Council announced they would cancel the Sky Show fireworks held on Guy Fawkes Night for 22 years, and move them to a Matariki cultural festival from July 2018. The celebrations have taken place over the period of a week or month, anywhere from early June to late August, but increasingly coincide with

1512-495: A speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster. Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades were probably formed from a compact configuration that once resembled the Orion Nebula . Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for approximately another 250 million years, after which the clustering will be lost due to gravitational interactions with the galactic neighborhood. Together with

1596-868: A systematic effect on Hipparcos parallax errors for stars in clusters would bias calculation using the weighted mean ; they gave a Hipparcos parallax distance of 126 pc and photometric distance of 132 pc based on stars in the AB Doradus , Tucana-Horologium and Beta Pictoris moving groups, which are all similar in age and composition to the Pleiades. Those authors note that the difference between these results may be attributed to random error. More recent results using very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) (August 2014), and preliminary solutions using Gaia Data Release 1 (September 2016) and Gaia Data Release 2 (August 2018), determine distances of 136.2 ± 1.2 pc, 134 ± 6 pc and 136.2 ± 5.0 pc, respectively. The Gaia Data Release 1 team were cautious about their result, and

1680-534: Is a result of uncertainties in stellar evolution models, which include factors such as convective overshoot , in which a convective zone within a star penetrates an otherwise non-convective zone, resulting in higher apparent ages. Another way of estimating the age of the cluster is by looking at the lowest-mass objects. In normal main-sequence stars, lithium is rapidly destroyed in nuclear fusion reactions. Brown dwarfs can retain their lithium, however. Due to lithium's very low ignition temperature of 2.5 × 10 K,

1764-686: Is also enhanced by being exclusive to New Zealand culture. 43% of New Zealanders regard Matariki as an important holiday. For businesses, Matariki is treated identically to most other public holidays; employees working on Matariki are required to be paid time-and-a-half and there are no restrictions on shops opening or alcohol sales. However, due to the unique cultural significance of the holiday, Māori cultural advisers and academics have warned companies against commercialising Matariki, citing cultural disrespect. Due to its proximity between King's Birthday and Labour Day , concerns were made regarding overcommercialisation of Matariki in terms of appropriating

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1848-458: Is dominated by fainter and redder stars. An estimate of the frequency of binary stars in the Pleiades is approximately 57%. The cluster contains many brown dwarfs , such as Teide 1 . These are objects with less than approximately 8% of the Sun 's mass, insufficient for nuclear fusion reactions to start in their cores and become proper stars. They may constitute up to 25% of the total population of

1932-535: Is no longer at the vernal point, the asterism still remains important, both functionally and symbolically. In addition to the changes in the calendars based on the lunar stations among the Indians and the Arabs, consider the case of an ancient Yemeni calendar in which the months are designated according to an astronomical criterion that caused it to be named Calendar of the Pleiades : the month of ḫams , literally "five",

2016-423: Is still reflected in modern Māori mourning practices. An important part of the celebration was whāngai i te hautapu , a ceremonial offering of food to the stars. The reasoning was that Matariki, after shepherding the spirits of the dead up from the underworld and turning the sun back from the winter solstice, would be weak and in need of sustenance. A small hāngī or earth oven was built, with heated stones in

2100-615: Is that during which the Sun and al-Ṯurayyā , i.e. the Pleiades , deviate from each other by five movements of the Moon , i.e. five times the path that the "Moon" travels on average in one day and one night, to use the terminology of Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi . In Turkic Mythology - The Pleiades Constellation is one of the oldest cosmological figures of the Turks. Seasonal cycles in Anatolia are determined by this star group. The Pleiades are

2184-459: Is visible for most of the year in New Zealand, except for approximately a month in the middle of winter. Matariki finally sets in the west in the early evening in May, and reappears just prior to sunrise in late June or early July, which begins the first month of the Māori lunar calendar, Pipiri (meaning to huddle together). All the months of the Māori calendar are indicated by this heliacal rising of

2268-621: The Geoponica . The Pleiades was the most well-known "star" among pre-Islamic Arabs and so often referred to simply as "the Star" ( an-Najm ; النجم ). Some scholars of Islam suggested that the Pleiades are the "star" mentioned in Surah An-Najm ("The Star") in the Quran . On numerous cylinder seals from the beginning of the first millennium BC, M45 is represented by seven points, while

2352-579: The Cooks as Matariki , and in the Tuamotu archipelago as Mata-ariki . In some languages it has Best's meaning of 'little eyes', but in most it is a contraction of mata-ariki , meaning 'eyes of the god' or 'eyes of the chief'. In Hawaiʻi , the rising of Makaliʻi in November ushers in the four-month season Makahiki , which honours Lono , the god of agriculture and fertility. In Tahiti,

2436-518: The Hyades were sisters of the Pleiades. The following table gives details of the brightest stars in the cluster: Ages for star clusters may be estimated by comparing the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for the cluster with theoretical models of stellar evolution . Using this technique, ages for the Pleiades of between 75 and 150 million years have been estimated. The wide spread in estimated ages

2520-515: The Kīngitanga newspaper was named Te Paki o Matariki . Most celebration of Matariki begins in the last quarter phase of the moon after the constellation's first appearance, during 3–4 nights known as "the nights of Tangaroa " ( ngā po o Tangaroa ), and finishes on the night before the new moon . The new moon, or whiro , is considered inauspicious in the Māori calendar, so would spoil any celebrations. Because Māori traditionally use

2604-484: The Mauna Kea Observatory on the island of Hawaii . It had the largest monolithic primary mirror in the world from its commissioning in 1998 until 2005. It also was chosen as the brand name of Subaru automobiles to reflect the origins of the firm as the joining of five companies, and is depicted in the firm's six-star logo. Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to view the Pleiades through

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2688-608: The Māori Language Commission began a move to "reclaim Matariki, or Aotearoa Pacific New Year , as an important focus for Māori language regeneration". In 2016 Te Wānanga o Aotearoa promoted a new vision of Matariki in a month-long roadshow called "Te Iwa o Matariki" ( iwa being Māori for "nine"), stressing the nine stars recognised by some iwi. Since then it has increasingly become common practice for people – Māori and non-Māori – and institutions such as schools, libraries, and city councils to celebrate Matariki in

2772-524: The Pleiades in the constellation Taurus . Matariki is a shortened version of Ngā mata o te ariki o Tāwhirimātea , "the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea". According to Māori tradition, Tāwhirimātea , the god of wind and weather, was enraged by the separation of heaven and earth – his parents, Ranginui and Papatūānuku . Defeated in battle by his brother, Tāwhirimātea fled to the sky to live with Ranginui, but in his anger he first plucked out his eyes as

2856-463: The Pleiades . In time, the name was said to be derived from that of a mythical mother, Pleione , effectively meaning "daughters of Pleione". In reality, the ancient name of the star cluster related to sailing almost certainly came first in the culture, naming of a relationship to the sister deities followed, and eventually appearing in later myths, to interpret the group name, a mother, Pleione. The M45 group played an important role in ancient times for

2940-483: The Ringatū church, but its traditional celebration had almost ceased by the early 20th century. The last of the traditional Matariki celebrations were recorded in the 1940s. Dansey records the ceremony being still practised in the 1880s or 1890s, and gives an account of one elderly New Plymouth woman carrying on the custom on her own until her death in 1941. The revival of the celebration of Matariki can be traced to

3024-600: The Seven Gods appear, on low-reliefs of Neo-Assyrian royal palaces, wearing long open robes and large cylindrical headdresses surmounted by short feathers and adorned with three frontal rows of horns and a crown of feathers, while carrying both an ax and a knife, as well as a bow and a quiver. As noted by scholar Stith Thompson , the constellation was "nearly always imagined" as a group of seven sisters, and their myths explain why there are only six. Some scientists suggest that these may come from observations back when Pleione

3108-810: The Spitzer Space Telescope and Gemini North telescope , astronomers discovered that one of the stars in the cluster, HD 23514 , which has a mass and luminosity a bit greater than that of the Sun, is surrounded by an extraordinary number of hot dust particles. This could be evidence for planet formation around HD 23514. OB star OB stars are hot, massive stars of spectral types O or early-type B that form in loosely organized groups called OB associations . They are short lived, and thus do not move very far from where they formed within their life. During their lifetime, they will emit much ultraviolet radiation. This radiation rapidly ionizes

3192-505: The vernal point . (2330 BC with ecliptic latitude about +3.5° according to Stellarium ) The importance of this asterism is also evident in northern Europe. The Pleiades cluster is displayed on the Nebra sky disc that was found in Germany and is dated to around 1600 BC. On the disk the cluster is represented in a high position between the Sun and the Moon. This asterism also marks the beginning of several ancient calendars: Although M45

3276-641: The 354-day Māori lunar calendar (with occasional intercalary months) only approximates the 365.24 day solar Gregorian solar calendar. On 30 September 2021, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan introduced the Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill to make Matariki a public holiday. The bill passed its first reading supported by the Labour, Green and Māori parties, but opposed by National and ACT . National argued that Matariki should replace an existing public holiday instead of being added as

3360-579: The Bill itself did not propose abolishing Queen's Birthday, and was voted down at its first reading . As part of the National – Māori Party agreement subsequent to the 2011 New Zealand general election , both parties agreed to support a "cultural heritage bill to recognise Matariki/Puanga, and to honour the peace-making heritage established at Parihaka ." In July 2020, Laura O'Connell Rapira delivered two combined petitions calling for Matariki to be made

3444-462: The Friday closest to the 4 days of the nights of Tangaroa in the lunar month Piripi. The dates vary from late June to mid July, but are always on a Friday, to encourage people to travel and spend time with their families, and to give an extra public holiday to people who usually miss out on Mondayised public holidays (e.g. those who normally work Tuesday to Saturday). The date of Matariki varies because

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3528-465: The Sun rose beside Matariki. Other iwi use Atutahi ( Canopus ) rather than Puanga, or the setting of Rehua ( Antares ) in winter, to mark the New Year. Matariki was an occasion to mourn the deceased, celebrate the present, and prepare the ground for the coming year. The ceremony had three parts: viewing the stars, remembering the deceased, and making an offering of food to the stars. This time of

3612-544: The VLBI authors assert "that the Hipparcos -measured distance to the Pleiades cluster is in error". The most recent distance estimate of the distance to the Pleiades based on the Gaia Data Release 3 is 135.74 ± 0.10 pc . The cluster core radius is approximately 8 light-years and tidal radius is approximately 43 light-years. The cluster contains more than 1,000 statistically confirmed members, not counting

3696-509: The bill a "neutral" name such as Pleiades , which prompted Crown-Māori Relations Minister Kelvin Davis to claim that the former's remarks showed National's contempt for Māori culture. The bill received royal assent on 11 April 2022. Matariki was first observed as a public holiday on 24 June 2022, including a pre-dawn live broadcast of a hautapu ceremony. It was received positively overall by New Zealanders. Its significance to New Zealanders

3780-519: The calm weather of summer – a phrase meaning good weather and good fortune. In Māori historical recollection, the Tainui canoe was instructed to leave the homeland of Hawaiki for Aotearoa in summer, when Matariki was overhead: this being a direct, ancient historical reference to Māori use of star navigation, for long sea voyaging. Because of these associations with peace and calm, the second Māori king, Matutaera Tāwhiao , chose Matariki as an emblem, and

3864-530: The cluster is relatively close to the Earth, the distance should be relatively easy to measure and has been estimated by many methods. Accurate knowledge of the distance allows astronomers to plot a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for the cluster, which, when compared with those plotted for clusters whose distance is not known, allows their distances to be estimated. Other methods may then extend the distance scale from open clusters to galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and

3948-429: The cluster is simply passing through a particularly dusty region of the interstellar medium . Studies show that the dust responsible for the nebulosity is not uniformly distributed, but is concentrated mainly in two layers along the line of sight to the cluster. These layers may have been formed by deceleration due to radiation pressure as the dust has moved toward the stars. Analyzing deep-infrared images obtained by

4032-458: The cluster may be seen even with small telescopes or average binoculars. It is a reflection nebula , caused by dust reflecting the blue light of the hot, young stars. It was formerly thought that the dust was left over from the formation of the cluster, but at the age of approximately 100 million years generally accepted for the cluster, almost all the dust originally present would have been dispersed by radiation pressure . Instead, it seems that

4116-404: The cluster will take approximately 250 million years to disperse, because of gravitational interactions with giant molecular clouds and the spiral arms of our galaxy hastening its demise. With larger amateur telescopes, the nebulosity around some of the stars may be easily seen, especially when long-exposure photographs are taken. Under ideal observing conditions, some hint of nebulosity around

4200-638: The cluster, although they contribute less than 2% of the total mass. Astronomers have made great efforts to find and analyze brown dwarfs in the Pleiades and other young clusters, because they are still relatively bright and observable, while brown dwarfs in older clusters have faded and are much more difficult to study. The brightest stars of the cluster are named the Seven Sisters in early Greek mythology : Sterope , Merope , Electra , Maia , Taygeta , Celaeno , and Alcyone . Later, they were assigned parents, Pleione and Atlas . As daughters of Atlas,

4284-601: The cluster, and their seven daughters Alcyone , Maia , Taygeta , Electra , Merope , Celaeno and Sterope . Many Māori sources, especially older ones, list seven stars in Matariki: Matariki herself, the central star in the cluster (the kai whakahaere or 'conductor'), and six children. The emblem of the Kīngitanga or Māori King movement, Te Paki o Matariki, includes the star Matariki flanked by three stars on each side. The six other stars are sometimes named as Matariki's daughters; it has been suggested that

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4368-481: The coming year. These predictions were made by tohunga kōkōrangi, learned elders who had studied and debated for many years in a whare kōkōrangi (house of astronomical learning). After the forecasts for the year had been read from the stars, the deceased were invoked with tears and song in a ceremony called te taki mōteatea ("the reciting of laments"). The names of everyone who had died since Matariki's last rising were recited. Traditionally, Māori believed that

4452-655: The date of a public holiday using the new moon in June; this was later changed to the new moon of the heliacal rising of Matariki when the bill was drawn a month later and set down for introduction into Parliament. Mayor of Waitakere City Bob Harvey supported the call to make Matariki a public holiday to replace Queen's Birthday , along with the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand , which found none of New Zealand's local authorities held celebrations for Queen's Birthday but many celebrated Matariki. However,

4536-572: The deceased as they return to the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki. Mourning the deceased is one component of the Matariki celebration. Hiwa-i-te-rangi, also known just as Hiwa, is the youngest of Matariki's children and was considered the "wishing star": Māori would rest their hopes and desires on Hiwa, similar to "wishing upon a star", and if it appeared to shine bright and clear on the first viewing of Matariki those individual and collective wishes were likely to be answered. Traditional Māori culture

4620-524: The distances as established by the Hipparcos satellite and independent means (e.g., the Hyades , the Coma Berenices cluster , etc.). Measurements of the distance have elicited much controversy. Results prior to the launch of the Hipparcos satellite generally found that the Pleiades were approximately 135 parsecs (pc) away from Earth. Data from Hipparcos yielded a surprising result, namely

4704-619: The early 1990s, sparked by various Māori iwi and organisations such as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa , for example in 1995 there was a festival called Pipitea Marae: Te Whakanui i a Matariki, at Pipitea Marae , Wellington City supported by Te Awa Kairangi Community Arts, Te Atiawa FM, Ernst & Young and Te Taura Whiri. Te Rangi Huata of Ngāti Kahungunu began in 2000 an annual Matariki celebration in Hastings, which attracted 500 people, which reached 15,000 in 2001. In 2001,

4788-516: The ecliptic, reflecting the fact that they were close to the point of the vernal equinox around the twenty-third century BC. The Ancient Egyptians may have used the names "Followers" and "Ennead" in the prognosis texts of the Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days of papyrus Cairo 86637. Some Greek astronomers considered them to be a distinct constellation , and they are mentioned by Hesiod 's Works and Days , Homer 's Iliad and Odyssey , and

4872-403: The establishment of many calendars thanks to the combination of two remarkable elements. The first, which is still valid, is its unique and easily identifiable appearance on the celestial vault near the ecliptic . The second, essential for the ancients, is that in the middle of the third millennium BC, this asterism (a prominent pattern or group of stars that is smaller than a constellation) marked

4956-470: The first Polynesian settlers to arrive in Aotearoa, and Matariki was brought by a second wave of arrivals, who also brought the first kūmara (with which Matariki is associated). In Māori tradition the stars Puanga and Matariki were rivals, with Puanga beautifying herself every winter, attempting to be the star beside which the sun rises and signals the New Year, but being eternally frustrated when each year

5040-399: The first date for the public holiday as 24 June 2022. Legislation to give this legal effect would be introduced during the 2021 parliamentary session. On 2 July 2021, the day the constellation rose, Ardern announced the proposed dates of the holiday for the next 30 years, as determined by a Matariki Advisory Group drawn from iwi across the country. The date of the holiday was formalised as

5124-464: The frequent poor weather in winter, the viewing of Matariki was spread across the three or four nights of Tangaroa to increase the chance that the stars would be clearly seen. The first clear night marked the beginning of festivities. When Matariki reappeared, Māori would look to its stars for a forecast of the coming season's prosperity: if they shone clear and bright, the remaining winter would be warm, but hazy or twinkling stars predicted bad weather in

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5208-477: The heavens") and Te Huihui o Matariki ("the assembly of Matariki"). Matariki is sometimes incorrectly translated as mata riki ("little eyes"), a mistake originating in the work of Elsdon Best and continued by others. The word matariki or similar, referring to the Pleiades, is found in many Polynesian languages. In the Marquesas the star cluster is known as Mataiʻi or Mataʻiki , in

5292-411: The heavens, identified by Māori as the star Antares . The stars of Matariki and their genders as recorded by Te Kōkau are identified with particular traits and areas of influence, also reflected in their positions in the star cluster: The star Pōhutukawa's association with the departed relates to the lone pōhutukawa tree at Te Rerenga Wairua ( Cape Reinga ), the departing place for the spirits of

5376-611: The highest-mass brown dwarfs will burn it eventually, and so determining the highest mass of brown dwarfs still containing lithium in the cluster may give an idea of its age. Applying this technique to the Pleiades gives an age of about 115 million years. The cluster is slowly moving in the direction of the feet of what is currently the constellation of Orion . Like most open clusters, the Pleiades will not stay gravitationally bound forever. Some component stars will be ejected after close encounters with other stars; others will be stripped by tidal gravitational fields. Calculations suggest that

5460-423: The idea of Matariki as a group of seven female stars was influenced by the concept of the Pleiades' "seven sisters". The manuscript of Rāwiri Te Kōkau passed on to Rangi Mātāmua recognised nine stars in Matariki, adding Pōhutukawa and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi (also known just as Hiwa) to make a total of eight children, five of which were female and three male. The father of Matariki's children was Rehua, paramount chief of

5544-475: The marker of the New Year, instead of Matariki. This is sometimes attributed to Puanga being more visible or visible earlier than Matariki, but, as Rangi Mātāmua puts it, "the variation in the rising between Matariki and Puanga is very small, and if the Tangaroa nights of Piripi are observed correctly, then both stars will be seen in the morning sky." It has been suggested that that tradition of Puaka belonged to

5628-435: The number that would be added if all binary stars could be resolved. Its light is dominated by young, hot blue stars , up to 14 of which may be seen with the naked eye, depending on local observing conditions and visual acuity of the observer. The brightest stars form a shape somewhat similar to that of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor . The total mass contained in the cluster is estimated to be approximately 800 solar masses and

5712-621: The open star cluster of the Hyades , the Pleiades form the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic . The name, Pleiades, comes from Ancient Greek : Πλειάδες . It probably derives from plein ("to sail") because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea : "the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising ". In Classical Greek mythology the name was used for seven divine sisters called

5796-497: The past year, and making an offering of food to replenish the stars. Some Māori use the rise of Puanga ( Rigel ) or other stars to mark the new year. Celebration of Matariki declined during the 20th century, but beginning in the early 1990s it underwent a revival. Matariki was first celebrated as an official public holiday in New Zealand on 24 June 2022. Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars known to Western astronomers as

5880-486: The position of the cluster and included it as "M45" in his catalogue of comet -like objects, published in 1771. Along with the Orion Nebula and the Praesepe cluster, Messier's inclusion of the Pleiades has been noted as curious, as most of Messier's objects were much fainter and more easily confused with comets—something that seems scarcely possible for the Pleiades. One possibility is that Messier simply wanted to have

5964-420: The probability of a chance alignment of so many bright stars was only 1 in 500,000, and so surmised that the Pleiades and many other clusters must consist of physically related stars. When studies were first made of the proper motions of the stars, it was found that they are all moving in the same direction across the sky, at the same rate, further demonstrating that they were related. Charles Messier measured

6048-401: The season ahead. The colour, brightness, and distinctiveness of each star in Matariki would be assessed, and forecasts made according to each of their associations: for example, if Tupu-ā-rangi did not shine clearly then hunters would expect a poor catch of birds in the coming season. Pōhutukawa was linked to the deceased, so its brightness would signal how many people were likely to pass away in

6132-435: The spirits of the dead were collected during the year and at the setting of Matariki in the month of Hautara they were led into the afterlife. On the rising of Matariki at the start of the year, the deceased of the past year were carried up from the underworld and cast up into the night sky to become stars, accompanied by prayers and the recitation of their names. Beginning the mourning for the previous year's departed at Matariki

6216-539: The start of the New Year, and what date is chosen to celebrate it. Some iwi (tribes) – specifically those in the far north of Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island ), the mid-western parts of Te Ika-a-Māui around Taranaki , the Chatham Islands , and much of Te Waipounamu ( South Island ) – celebrate Puanga, using the rising of the brighter star Rigel ( Puanga in northern Māori, Puaka in southern Māori) as

6300-797: The storehouse); the Japanese (who call them Subaru ; 昴 , スバル ); the Maya ; the Aztec ; the Sioux ; the Kiowa ; and the Cherokee . In Hinduism , the Pleiades are known as Kṛttikā and are scripturally associated with the war deity Kartikeya and are also identified or associated with the Saptamatrika(s) (Seven Mothers). Hindus celebrate the first day (new moon) of the month of Kartik as Diwali ,

6384-416: The success of the celebrations in Aotearoa following a proposal by its Minister of Culture Eliane Tevahitua ; the act would be implemented officially on 2025. A proposal to make Matariki an official public holiday in New Zealand was made by former Māori Party MP Rahui Katene 's member's bill Te Ra o Matariki Bill/Matariki Day Bill , drawn from the ballot in June 2009. The Bill would have fixed

6468-421: The surrounding interstellar gas of the giant molecular cloud , forming an H II region or Strömgren sphere . In lists of spectra the "spectrum of OB" refers to "unknown, but belonging to an OB association so thus of early type". This article about stellar astronomy is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Matariki In Māori culture , Matariki is the Pleiades star cluster and

6552-462: The winter solstice or the traditional dates of Matariki. In 2024, Charles III , as King of New Zealand , released a message recognising the holiday in both English and Māori. Earlier on 30 April, President of French Polynesia Moetai Brotherson in a session with his Council of Ministers agreed to make their local counterpart Matariʻi as an official public holiday on November 20th in place of Internal Autonomy Day on June 29th inspired by

6636-428: The year was also a good time to instruct young people in the lore of the land and the forest. In addition, certain birds and fish were associated with Matariki: to Tūhoe it marked the beginning of the season where kererū or native pigeon could be captured, cooked, and preserved in its own fat, and the rise of Matariki corresponded with the return of korokoro (lampreys) from the sea to spawn in rivers. Because of

6720-432: The year was divided into two seasons, named according to whether the Pleiades are visible after sunset: Matariʻi i nia (' Matariʻi above') and Matariʻi i raro (' Matariʻi below'). On Rapa Nui , Matariki heralded the New Year, and its disappearance in mid-April ended the fishing season. To the ancient Greeks, the Pleiades contained nine stars: the parents Atlas and Pleione , positioned to one side of

6804-688: The year; Hawaiians (who call them Makaliʻi ), Māori (who call them Matariki ); Indigenous Australians (from several traditions ); the Achaemenid Empire , whence in Persians (who called them Parvīn – پروین – or Parvī – پروی ); the Arabs (who call them al-Thurayyā ; الثريا ); the Chinese (who called them mǎo ; 昴 ); the Quechua (who call them Qullqa or

6888-627: Was farther from Atlas and more visible as a separate star as far back as 100,000 BC. In Japan , the cluster is mentioned under the name Mutsuraboshi ("six stars") in the eighth-century Kojiki . The cluster is now known in Japan as Subaru. The name was chosen for that of the Subaru Telescope , the 8.2-meter (320 in) flagship telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , located at

6972-430: Was interwoven with astronomical knowledge, with constellations and the lunar cycle used for navigation, planting and harvesting, delineating the seasons, and marking the spawning and migration of fish. This knowledge was passed down by oral tradition, and different regions and iwi recorded different dates, significant constellations, and traditional calendars or maramataka . The Pleiades constellation (Matariki)

7056-500: Was the final part of the ceremony, which ended at sunrise. The Matariki ceremony was followed by days of festivities – song, dance, and feasting – known as te mātahi o te tau ("the first fruits of the year"), celebrating prosperity, life, and the promise of the year to come. With the colonisation of New Zealand by Pākehā settlers in the 19th century, many traditional Māori practices began to decline. Some aspects of Matariki were incorporated into new religious traditions such as

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