The constellation of Cassiopeia, the Queen // Cyril NOGER
Click below for an annotated image and some info about the five stars that make up Cassiopeia!
The stars, in order of brightness:
Schedar (α Cassiopeiae) is a solitary orange giant star about 228 light years from Earth. Its name comes from the Arabic word şadr meaning "chest," marking its place as the heart of Queen Cassiopeia.
Caph (β Cassiopeiae) is solitary yellow-white giant star about 55 light years from Earth. Its name comes from the Arabic word kaf meaning "palm."
Tiansi (γ Cassiopeiae) is a binary star system consisting of a blue giant star and a white dwarf and lies about 550 light years distant. Its name is a recent one, given to it in November 2025. It comes from the Chinese words Tiān Sì (天駟) meaning "heavenly quadriga," pulling the chariot of Wangliang (β Cassiopeiae). It is responsible for lighting up the nearby "Ghost of Cassiopeia" nebula.
Ruchbah (δ Cassiopeiae) is a binary star system about 100 light years from Earth. The primary is a blue-white giant star. The name comes from the Arabic word rukbah meaning "knee."
Segin (ε Cassiopeiae) is a solitary blue giant star about 470 light years from Earth. The origin of its name is unknown.
Not a part of the lines that make up the constellation are a few other named stars:
Achird (η Cassiopeiae) is a binary star system consisting of a yellow Sun-like star and a red dwarf. The entire system lies about 19 light years away. The name was originally assigned to this star in 1950, but its origin is unknown.
Fulu (ζ Cassiopeiae) is a blue-white giant star about 590 light years from Earth. Its name comes from Chinese astronomy, Fùlù (附路) meaning "auxiliary road," because this star is marking itself and standing alone in the Auxiliary Road asterism.
Cexing (κ Cassiopeiae) is a blue-white supergiant star about 4,000 light years away. Its name comes from a portmanteau of the Chinese words Cè (策) meaning "the charioteer's whip" and xing meaning "star."
Castula (υ² Cassiopeiae) is a solitary yellow giant star about 196 light years from Earth. The name comes from the Latin word for a type of woman's tunic.
The Shocking Behavior of a Speedy Star
NASA – Roguish runaway stars can have a big impact on their surroundings as they plunge through the Milky Way galaxy. Their high-speed encounters shock the galaxy, creating arcs, as seen in this newly released image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.
In this case, the speedster star is known as Kappa Cassiopeiae, or HD 2905 to astronomers. It…
The red arc in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is a giant shock wave created by a speeding star known as Kappa Cassiopeiae. It's our photo of the day — see more.
Roguish runaway stars can have a big impact on their surroundings as they plunge through the Milky Way galaxy. Their high-speed encounters shock the galaxy, creating arcs, as seen in this newly released image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
In this case, the speedster star is known as Kappa Cassiopeiae, or HD 2905 to astronomers. It is a massive, hot supergiant moving at around 2.5 million mph relative to its neighbors (1,100 kilometers per second). But what really makes the star stand out in this image is the surrounding, streaky red glow of material in its path. Such structures are called bow shocks, and they can often be seen in front of the fastest, most massive stars in the galaxy.
