Virgo is the second largest constellation in the sky. It is best seen from April through June. The Sun passes through Virgo between mid-September and early November, and is in Virgo at the time of the autumnal equinox, which occurs around September 21st each year. At this time, fall begins in the northern hemisphere, and spring begins in the southern.
History and Mythology
Many myths are associated with Virgo. The Greeks and Romans worshipped Virgo for providing successful harvests. She is usually shown holding a sheath of wheat in her left hand, near the star Spica. She serves as a reminder to farmers that planting time has come.
The Greeks believed that Virgo represented Persephone. She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Hades, god of the underworld, fell in love with her and stole her away to be his wife. Her mother was so sad that she could not perform her duties. The weather grew cold, and nothing would grow.
Zeus decided that Persephone should spend half of the year with her husband in the underworld, and the other half with her mother. The Greeks believed that when she is in the underworld, her mother was so sad that the winds would blow and snow would cover the land. When she returned to her mother, the Earth enjoyed spring and summer.
Early Christians believed that Virgo represented the Virgin Mary. The ancient Chinese saw these stars as the first lunar mansion, a region of the sky where the Moon passed through.
Notable Stars
The brightest star in Virgo is Alpha Viriginis or Spica, a first magnitude blue-white star. The name Spica derives from Latin, meaning "ear of grain". Spica is the 16th brightest star in the sky, and is 250 light-years away. It is an eclipsing binary whose magnitude varies by about 0.1 magnitude every 4 days.
Porrima is a famous binary star named after a Roman goddess. It is also known as Gamma Virginis, and it is a splendid double star in a small telescope. Only 30 light years away, it has nearly identical components in a highly elliptical orbit with a 170-year period. As a result, their apparent separation varies from about 0.5 to 6 arcseconds; their most recent closest approach was in 2007.
Beta Virginis has the traditional name Zavijava, from the Arabic phrase meaning "corner of the barking dog". It is a relatively sunlike nearby star, only 36 light years away, shining at the modest magnitude of 3.6. Third-brightest in the constellation is Epsilon Virginis or Vindemiatrix, whose Latin name means "the grape gatherer". It is a yellow giant 182 light years away.
Ross 128 is a nearby red dwarf star 11 light years away, and appears at 11th magnitude in the northeastern corner of Virgo. It is also the 11th closest star system to our own.
Clusters, Nebulae, and Galaxies
The Virgo Cluster of galaxies lies along the northern border of Virgo and Coma Berenices. The cluster contains a rich variety of galaxies, and is centered about 60 million light years away. Its largest member is M 87, a giant elliptical galaxy, larger than the Andromeda Galaxy and Milky Way combined. It is surrounded by a swarm of more than 4,000 globular clusters, and has an enormous jet approximately 4100 light-years long emanating from its center.
M 49 is another large elliptical galaxy in Virgo. Messier 49 is the brightest member of the Virgo Cluster, at magnitude 8.4, and rivals the more famous M 87.
M 84 and M 86 are a pair of 9th magnitude elliptical galaxies northwest of M 87. They form the heart of Markarian's Chain of galaxies, which extends northwest to M 88 in Coma Berenices, and also includes NGC 4435, NGC 4438, and NGC 4388. The 10th-magnitude elliptical galaxy M 89, and nearby 9th-magnitude spiral M 90 are also part of this group.
M 59 and M 60 are both 9th magnitude elliptical galaxies southeast of M 87, and prominent members of the Virgo Cluster. M 58 is a 9th magnitude spiral galaxy with a brighter core. M 61 is a 10th magnitude spiral.
The famous Sombrero Galaxy, M 104, is a 9th magnitude spiral near the southern boundary of Virgo. M 104 is seen edge-on, and is known for a massive, dark dust band that cuts across its nucleus.
3C 273, a starlike 13th-magnitude object located 3.5 degrees northeast of 15 Virginis, is the brightest example of a quasar in the sky. Quasars are thought to be the most luminous objects in the universe. They are strong radio sources and show enormous red shifts in their spectra. This implies that they lie at distances far beyond the most remote galaxies, and therefore are among the oldest objects astronomers have observed. 3C 273's distance is estimated to be 2.4 billion light years, possibly making it the most distant object that can be seen with amateur telescopes.