Cepheus

Also known as Cep, Cephei

constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere

AI overview

Cepheus is a constellation, or recognizable star pattern, located in the northern part of the night sky that can be seen from Earth's Northern Hemisphere. It's one of the many constellations ancient astronomers identified and named, helping people navigate and organize the stars visible above them.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Official name: Cepheus
Area: 589
Image: CepheusCC.jpg

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Commons category: Cepheus (constellation)
Commons gallery: Cepheus
short name: Cep

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Article

Cepheus is a constellation in the deep northern sky, named after Cepheus, a king of Aethiopia in Greek mythology. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the second century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 constellations in the modern times.

The constellation's brightest star is Alderamin (Alpha Cephei), with an apparent magnitude of 2.5. Delta Cephei is the prototype of an important class of star known as a Cepheid variable. RW Cephei, an orange hypergiant, together with the red supergiants Mu Cephei, MY Cephei, VV Cephei, V381 Cephei, and V354 Cephei are among the largest stars known. In addition, Cepheus also has the hyperluminous quasar S5 0014+81, which hosts an ultramassive black hole in its core, reported at 40 billion solar masses, about 10,000 times more massive than the central black hole of the Milky Way, making this among the most massive black holes currently known.