Merope is the Pleiades star wrapped in the brightest part of the cluster’s blue haze, the Merope Nebula, dust lit by a passing hot star.
At a glance
| type | blue-white star (class B) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 442 light-years (135 pc) |
| its light left it | 442 years ago |
| luminosity | 630 × the Sun |
| radius | 4.4 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 14,000 K |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Merope
Merope is a hot blue-white B-type star in the Pleiades, and it lies in the densest part of the dust cloud the cluster is moving through. The result is the Merope Nebula, NGC 1435, the brightest of the reflection nebulae around the cluster, glowing blue for the same reason the daytime sky does: dust scatters blue light more than red.
Very close to the star, a small bright knot of the cloud, IC 349, is being eroded by Merope’s light as the star moves past it.
In myth Merope married Sisyphus, a mortal, and the story says her star is the faintest of the sisters out of shame; it is one of the tellings of the lost Pleiad.
What you see in the piece
In the Pleiades Merope is one of the bright blue-white stars; the haze around it is dust lit from inside, unrelated to the cluster’s birth.
Questions
What is the Merope Nebula?
It is a cloud of dust that the Pleiades are passing through, lit by Merope; it glows blue because dust scatters blue light best.
How hot is Merope?
Its surface is about 14,000 K, which is why it is blue-white.