Mythology
Leo. Latin for Lion, can be found in the Northern hemisphere, lying between Cancer and Virgo in the night sky. There is archaeological evidence that the Mesopotamians used a similar constellation from 4300BCE (Pasachoff 2006), with multiple cultures having their own name. Turks, Artan; the Persians, Ser or Shir; the Indians, Sinha, all with the same meaning – ‘lion’ In Babylonian astronomy the bright star Regulus was called ‘the star that stands at the lion’s breast’. As it was known as the King Star. The constellation is known as UR.G.U.LA – The Great Lion. |
In Greek Mythology, Leo was killed by Heracles during the first of his twelve labour. Leo also known as Nemean Leo would lure warriors from nearby towns with women who were taken. Being impervious to any weapons, Hercules realised he had to defeat the lion with his bare hands. When the lion pounced, Hercules caught the lion in mid-air bending it backwards and breaking its back, thus freeing the trapped maidens. The lion was placed in the sky as a commemoration of the battle
Deep space objects
Leo contains multiple galaxies, the most famous being the Leo triplet, M65, M66 and NGC 3628. Other galaxies of note are M95. M96 and M105. The Leo ring is a hydrogen and helium cloud 650,000Ly across which orbits two known galaxies in this constellation. Leo has multiple named stars in the constellation, five of which are brighter than the magnitude of 3.0, thirteen stars in the constellation have confirmed planets. One of the oldest known stars also resides in Leo named SDSS J102915+172937 or Caffau’s Star, and was thought it was a population II star (Lemonick 2011) and is now confirmed as a Dwarf Star (Bonifacio et al,. 2018) which is at the below location. Right ascension 10h 29m 15.15s Declination +17° 29′ 28″ |
Boarding Constellations
- Ursa Major
- Leo Minor
- Lynx
- Cancer
- Hydra
- Sextans
- Crater
- Virgo
- Coma Berenices