Perseus (constellation)

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/perseus-constellation

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the ptolemaic constellation?Included in Ptolemy's Almagest, cataloged around 150 CE
2. What is the algol's period?Eclipsing binary with a primary period of approximately 2.87 days
3. What is Perseus in the night sky?Perseus is a constellation that looks like the hero from Greek stories. It shows the brave hero who killed Medusa and saved Andromeda. It can be seen in the northern sky during autumn and winter.
4. Why does the star Algol in Perseus seem to wink?Algol is an eclipsing binary star. Every 2.87 days a cooler star passes in front of a hotter star, making the light dim. This makes it look like it is winking.

Almagest: A foundational ancient Greek astronomical treatise by Claudius Ptolemy.
Eclipsing Binary: A binary star system where the orbital plane is aligned such that the stars periodically eclipse each other.
Light Curve: A graph showing the change in brightness of a celestial object over time.
Open Star Cluster: A group of up to a few thousand stars formed from the same giant molecular cloud, loosely bound by gravity.