| Astronomy column for 4/29/2001 Bernice's Hair The bright star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes is rising in the east right now, a sure sign that spring is finally here and that summer can't be far behind. Above Arcturus is one of the strangest sights in the sky a large fuzzy patch that resolves into a dozen or so stars for the sharp-eyed observer. The simplest pair of binoculars will reveal even more stars. The constellation associated with the fuzzy patch, called Coma Berenices, has a long and checkered history. Few fuzzy patches get their own names, let alone their own constellations. Coma Berenices, or Berenice's Hair, did, but it took a long time to get there. Also, virtually all the constellations are named after great heroes, animal and human, from ancient mythology. Coma is the only constellation named after a real, historical person. For the longest time, Berenice's Hair wasn't considered a constellation at all. The ancient Greeks hooked the fuzzy patch up with nearby Leo, the Lion, picturing it as a puff of fur at the end of the lion's tail. By 150 AD, Ptolemy, the greatest of the Greek astronomers, refers to the stars as "a nebulous mass, called the lock,", i.e., of hair. Even earlier, around 200 BCE, the Greek scientist and writer Eristosthenes identified the puff of stars as Berenice's Hair in his famous work on constellation science and mythology called The Catasterisms. Both astronomers worked in Alexandria, the great seat of ancient scholarship at the mouth of the Nile River in northern Egypt. The Berenice in question must surely be Queen Berenice II of Egypt, who lived during the third century BCE, just before Eristosthenes wrote his book. By the first century AD, the designation was set forever by the Roman poet Hyginus in his Poetic Astronomy, even though he still considered the star patch as part of Leo. It took another 1500 years for the stellar grouping to become a constellation in its own right. In 1551, the Dutch star mapper Gerardus Mercator grabbed a few nearby stars and combined them with the fuzzy patch to form the official constellation Coma Berenices. In the process, the lion finally lost its tail. The real mystery is how the stars got to be associated with the hair of an ancient Egyptian Queen in the first place. About Queen Berenice little is known. During the third century BCE, she was first the sister and then the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes. (The pharaohs often married their close relatives to keep the royal bloodline pure.) Berenice was something of a warrior and horsewoman, distinguishing herself in battle before she married Ptolemy. According to Hyginus, Ptolemy left his new wife just a few days after their nuptials to make war on Asia. Berenice vowed to the gods that she would cut off her hair if Ptolemy returned safely. This had to be considered a major sacrifice. She was apparently quite attached to her long, amber-colored tresses. At the pharaoh's safe return, the now-hairless Berenice placed her hair on the altar of the temple dedicated to her mother Arisinoe. The next day, the hair was gone. The temple priests clearly had some serious explaining to do to a very angry pharaoh and a very bald queen. Conon of Samos, an astronomer and mathematician who who worked in Alexandria, came up with the life-saving solution. He pointed to the fuzzy patch at the tail of Leo and told the royal couple that Berenice's hair had gone to join the stars. The story has the ring of truth to it. We can imagine a desperate Conon in fear of his life raising his eyes toward heaven for inspiration and finding there a glorious patch of light. | |
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