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Salt Lake Community College

The Great Jaguar

Kassidy Kelsch

PHYS 1040 406

Professor Janalee Harrison

11 April 2019
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MYTHOLOGY

Many ancient societies that thrived centuries ago all have one thing in common, they all

looked to the stars to predict patterns, gaze at, and fulfill mythologies. One of these societies

include the Ancient Aztecs which inhabited ancient Mexico from the years 1345 CE to 1521 CE.

According to the Aztecs the world was wrestled away from the giant earth monster named

Tlaltecuhtli. It was wrestled away from them by two gods, Quetzacoatl and Tezcatlipoca.

Tezcatlipoca lost his foot to the giant jaws of the earth monster and is often depicted with no

right foot or something substituting his foot. Once the world was free from the monster the gods

appointed Tezcatlipoca head god and sun for the new world. He could shape the world into what

ever he wanted. Tezcatlipoca created humans the size of mountains. After a while Tezcatlipoca

noticed that the other deities weren’t liking this world and in a fit of rage sent his beloved pet

jaguars to Earth to slaughter the giant human race. He was then cast out of the pantheon of Aztec

gods but still had a huge cult following by many. According to the Aztec creation myth, we are

living under the fifth sun, or world, created by Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, sun, fire, and

hummingbirds. The Aztecs believed themselves to be the chosen people and called themselves

“The People Of The Sun”.

Tezcatlipoca was the Aztec god of

dark magic, necromancy, jaguars, the

night sky and trickery. He was also the

god of the smoking mirror which was the

Aztec’s analogy for the ever changing (Maciel) - The constellation Ursa Major, depicted by red dots,
on top of an ancient depiction of a jaguar. Blue lines added by
surface of Earth; he was so synonymous Kassidy Kelsch.

with the smoking mirror that it replaced his missing foot in almost all ancient depictions of him.
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After Tezcatlipoca slaughtered the world of giants with his numerous predators of the night,

jaguars, the Aztecs believed that he rose to the sky in the form of a great celestial jaguar, a

constellation that we called Ursa Major. When the jaguar constellation dipped its foot into the

sea, below the horizon, the Aztecs believed that it nodded to their cosmic creation myth where

Tezcatlipoca lost his foot to the giant earth monster. (Philips, 167)

CONSTELLATION

In western culture Ursa Major takes the form of a giant bear, translated from Latin, Ursa

Major means “large bear.” This constellation starts with the star Alkaid which begins at the

handle of the big dipper. The handle goes down in a curve into the basin which is made out of

four stars, two of which, Merak and Dubhe, point straight towards the north star. From these

stars the constellation makes a triangle with the star Muscida. From the middle of this triangle

extends a leg that ends at the star Talitha. The other leg extends from Phecda, one of the stars

that make up the basin of the big dipper, and it separates into two legs. The first one extends to

Tania Australis while the second one extends Alula Australis.

Ursa Major’s surrounding constellations include Boötes, Camelopardalis, Canes Venatici,

Coma Berenices, Draco, Leo, Leo Minor, and Lynx. It is the third largest constellation in the

night sky spanning an approximate area of 1280 square degrees or about 2100 arcminutes by

2190 arcminutes. Ursa Major has an approximate right ascension from 8 hours and 8 minutes, to

14 hours and 15 minutes. It also has an approximate declination of +28 degrees to +63 degrees.

Ursa Major is seen in the Northern Hemisphere all year long and seen between the latitudes of

+90 degrees and -30 degrees and is located in the second quadrant of the Northern Hemisphere.

(Admin, Ursa Major Constellation)

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20 Brightest Stars in Ursa Major (Sorter by Visual Magnitude)

Designation RA Dec Distance Visual Spectral and Other Notes

and Name (In Light Magnitude Luminosity
Years) classification
ε UMa 12h 54m +55° 57′ 81 1.76 A0p Has a brown dwarf companion.
Alioth 01.63s 35.4″ An alpha2 canum venaticorum
variable star. The brightest star
in Ursa Major, and 32nd
brightest in night sky.
α UMa 11h 03m +61° 45′ 124 1.81 F7V comp The youngest star in Ursa
Dubhe 43.84s 04.0″ Major, will live the longest
η UMa 13h 47m +49° 18′ 101 1.85 B3V SB
Alkaid 32.55s 47.9″
ζ1 UMa 13h 23m +54° 55′ 83 2.23 A2V SB Spectroscopic binary, visual
Mizar 55.54s 31.3″ double star with Mizar B,
naked eye binary with alcor.
β UMa 11h 01m +56° 22′ 79 2.34 A1V
Mirak 50.39s 56.4″
γ UMa 11h 53m +53° 41′ 84 2.41 A0V SB The oldest star in Ursa Major,
Phecda 49.74s 41.0″ will be the first star in Ursa
Major to die.
ψ UMa 11h 09m +44° 29′ 147 3.00 K1III
Ta Tsun 39.86s 54.8″
μ UMa 10h 22m +41° 29′ 249 3.06 M0III SB Semiregular variable star.
Tania 19.80s 58.0″
Australis
ι UMa 08h 59m +48° 02′ 48 3.12 A7IV Quadruple Star.
Talitha, 12.84s 32.5″
Dnoces
θ UMa 09h 32m +51° 40′ 44 3.17 F6IV Closest star in Ursa Major to
Sarir Bonet 52.33s 43.0″ Earth.
δ UMa 12h 15m +57° 01′ 81 3.32 A3Vvar
Megrez 25.45s 57.4″
ο UMa 08h 30m +60° 43′ 184 3.35 G4II-III Has a planet orbiting it.
Muscida 16.03s 06.4″
λ UMa 10h 17m +42° 54′ 134 3.45 A2IV
Tania 05.93s 52.1″
Borealis
ν UMa 11h 18m +33° 05′ 421 3.49 K3III SB
Alula 28.76s 39.3″
Borealis
κ UMa 09h 03m +47° 09′ 423 3.57 A1Vn Furthest star in Ursa Major
Talitha 37.56s 24.0″ from Earth.
Australis
23 UMa 09h 31m +63° 03′ 75 3.65 F0IV
31.57s 42.5″
χ UMa 11h 46m +47° 46′ 196 3.69 K0III
Alkafzah 03.13s 45.6″
υ UMa 09h 50m +59° 02′ 115 3.78 F0IV A Delta Scuti Star.
59.69s 20.8″
ξ UMa A 11h 18m +31° 31′ 27.3 3.79 G0V An RS Canum Venaticorum
Alula 11.24s 50.8″ variable star; also a binary star.
Australis Closest star in Ursa Major to
Earth. Most similar star to
Earth’s sun.
ζ UMa B 13h 23m +54° 55′ 83 3.88 A3m A spectroscopic binary, visual
Mizar B 56.33s 18.56″ double star with Mizar A,
naked eye binary with Alcor.
“List of Stars in Ursa Major.” From Wikipedia.com.
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THE CIGAR GALAXY

The Cigar Galaxy, also known as Messier 82,

is one of the many galaxies that inhibit the Ursa

Major constellation. It has a right ascension of

about 09h 55m 52.2s and a declination of

+69°40’47”. Messier 82 is about 11.4 – 12.4

million light years away from Earth and has less

(Admin, Messier 82) - An infrared picture of The than 30 billion stars inhabiting it. It is an irregular
Cigar Galaxy as observed by NASA’s Spitzer Space
Telescope back in 2005. starburst galaxy that is seen edge on from here and

it has a visual magnitude of 6.9. (Admin, Messier 82)

On January 21, 2014, a type 1a supernova by the name of SN 2014J was found in this

galaxy in a spot where there was none before, it was just born into existence when it was

discovered. Founded by the University of London Observatory in London, UK, it was the

closest of its type to Earth in over 40 years and was several times brighter than our own Milky

Way Galaxy and was one of the brightest galaxies in our northern sky. Type la supernovas are

very exciting for astronomers because they are used to understand the scale of the cosmos. This

one was particularly exciting due to the fact that it was just barely born and we can now learn a

lot about it’s evolution and infer the properties of this supernova’s progenitor star. (Admin,

Messier 82)
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There is also an unknown object in this

galaxy. Founded in April 2010, strange

radio waves were emitting from an object

in the Cigar Galaxy. To this day we do not

know what is emitting these waves but we

do know that it is close to the galaxy’s

center and is not associated with the black

hole at the center of Messier 82. (Admin,

(Admin, Messier 82) - Composite image of Messier 82 from
many different telescopes. X-Ray data appears blue, infrared
Messier 82) light appears in red, hydrogen emission appears in orange, and
bluest visible light appears in yellow-green.
The Cigar Galaxy was officially

discovered in August of 1779 by Pierre Méchain in tandem with the discovery of Messier 81

also known as Bode’s Galaxy. It was added to Charles Messier’s catalogue on February 9, 1781.

Messier 81 and 82 were described by its founder as “two nebulous stars at the ear of the Great

Bear.” (Admin, Messier 82)

THE OWL NEBULA

Founded in 1789 by Pierre Méchain, Messier 97, also known as the Owl Nebula, is found in

Ursa Major and appears to have two round shaped “owl eyes”. Messier 97 is a planetary nebula

with a right ascension of 11 hours 14 minutes and 47.734 seconds and has a declination of

+55°01’08.50”. This nebula is approximately 2,030 light years away from Earth and is around

8,000 years old. (Admin, Messier 97)

The Owl Nebula has a visual magnitude of 7.5 and is able to be seen by 20 by 80 binoculars

and small telescopes. Expanding at a velocity from 27 to 39 km/s, Messier 97 has been

expanding and will completely disperse over the next several thousand years. This nebula has an
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estimated temperature of about 123,000 K and is about 41 to 148 times brighter than our Sun.

(Admin, Messier 97)

When the nebula collapsed, the central star expelled matter in opposite directions that

resulted in the nebula’s owl-like appearance: along with this the Messier 97 has three concentric

shells, the inner shell is not perfectly symmetric which forms a barrel like structure that gives the

nebula owl eyes. The outermost shell is

around 20%-30% larger than the inner

shell, the barrel like structure is aligned

45 degrees to our line of sight. The

white dwarf at the center of this nebula

is about 0.7 solar masses while the

whole nebula contains about 0.13 solar

masses of material which includes

hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen,

(Admin, Messier 97) - The Owl Nebula, also known as Messier 97.

and sulphur. (Admin. Messier 97)

Although officially discovered in 1781, the Owl Nebula’s outer halo wasn’t detected until

1991. Due to the star’s collapse from red giant to white dwarf this former star is now heated by

the radiation of its central white dwarf star which produces the nebula’s glow. Because of this

glow Messier 97 appears brighter in viewing than in photographs because the majority of its

light emits in one green spectral line. (Admin, Messier 97)

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Bibliography

Admin. “Ursa Major Constellation.” Constellation Guide, Apr. 2012,

www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/ursa-major-constellation/.

Admin. “Messier 82: Cigar Galaxy.” Messier Objects, 8 Aug. 2015,

www.messier-objects.com/messier-82-cigar-galaxy/.

Admin. “Messier 97: Owl Nebula.” Messier Objects, 25 Aug. 2015,

www.messier-objects.com/messier-97-owl-nebula/#.

“List of Stars in Ursa Major.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 May 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_Ursa_Major.

Phillips, Charles. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aztec & Maya: the Greatest Civilizations of

Ancient Central America with 1000 Photographs, Paintings & Maps. Hermes House,

Anness Publishing Ltd, 2017.

Maciel, Francisco Jesús Hernández (Akapochtli). “File:Ocelotl Jaguar.JPG.” Wikimedia

Commons, Wikimedia Project, 23 Feb. 2008,

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ocelotl_Jaguar.JPG. (Blue lines added by author

of this essay, Kassidy Kelsch.)