Constellation Chart

The Sea Monster, The Water Snake

The Hydra is the largest constellation in the heavens. It occupies the southern sky in spring bordering Cancer, to as far as Libra and Centaurus, stretching out to around one hundred degrees in the process. This hydra marks a gigantic beast with many heads. And Heracles killed the hydra by cutting off the all of head. Alpha Hydrae, Alphard is very noticeable at the heart of hydra. The star is a bright red-giant, meaning of "Solitary". It came that there are no bright stars around Alphard. Besides, The star has an another name of "Col Hydrae" (The Hydra's Heart), a fitting name.

Galaxies in Hydra

ESO 510-G13

The Hubble telescope has captured an image of an unusual edge-on galaxy, revealing remarkable details of its warped dusty disk and showing how colliding galaxies spawn the formation of new generations of stars. The dust and spiral arms of normal spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, appear flat when viewed edge-on. This Hubble Heritage image of ESO 510-G13 shows a galaxy that, by contrast, has an unusual twisted disk structure, first seen in ground-based photographs.

NGC 3314

NGC 3314 consists of two large spiral galaxies which just happen to almost exactly line-up. The foreground spiral is viewed nearly face-on, its pinwheel shape defined by young bright star clusters. But against the glow of the background galaxy, dark swirling lanes of interstellar dust are also seen to echo the face-on spiral's structure. The dust lanes are surprisingly pervasive, and this remarkable pair of overlapping galaxies is one of a small number of systems in which absorption of visible light can be used to directly explore the distribution of dust in distant spirals. NGC 3314 is about 140 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Hydra.

M83

M83 is a bright galaxy around the tail of Hydra. The galaxy has almost same right ascension with Spica, alpha Vir, and positioned just 19 degrees south of Spica. M83 has a shape of typical "Bared Galaxy", a clear bar can be seen stretched to NE and SW, and two spirals are coiled up from each tip of the bar. Those unique structures can be captured in films very easily, and you can see those indistinctly with the medium-sized scopes and cleared night sky. It can be said that M83 is a very rare galaxy because we can hardly recognize the spiral structure in almost all other galaxies with naked eyes via telescopes. And it's considered that M83 is only one galaxy the clear spirals had been recorded in sketches before the astro-photographic technology was invented and developed.

NGC3621

NGC3621 is a large-sized spiral galaxy lying around central region of Hydra. You can find out the galaxy about 3.2 degrees west of xi Hydrae. Apparent size is 12 x 7 arc minutes and brightness is 9th magnitude. Although the galaxy is classified in spiral, its structure is indistinct. Only dimmed light can be detected.

Planetary Nebula In Hydra

NGC 3242 - Ghost of Jupiter

This planetary nebula is often called the "Ghost of Jupiter" since it is fairly large and round- though MUCH dimmer than its namesake. Even a small telescope under bright skies can be used to view this nebula. Its color is an unmistakable blue/green. Views through a larger telescope reveal the inner torus and central star (white dwarf). Located in the constellation of Hydra, NGC 3242 is easily found just beneath (south of) Mu Hydrae. It is estimated to be 1,400 light years away.

Globular Cluster's in Hydra

M48 (NGC2548)

M48 (NGC2548) is a medium-sized open cluster at the western-edge of Hydra closing to Monoceros. The cluster contains about 80 fine stars, has a diameter of about 30 arc minutes, almost same as that of full-moon. You can perfectly resolve individual stars only with the portable binoculars, and enjoy various stellar series through small scopes. The distance from the solar system is estimated around 3000 light years.

M68

M68 is a small-scaled globular cluster hided in the body of Hydra. Though the cluster belongs to a constellation of Hydra, it's easy to search it from stars of Corvus. M68 can be found by stretching the eastern edge of square of Corvus southward. The cluster is very sparse; you can detect individual stars only with small telescopes.

Planetary Destinations In Hydra

HD 74156

Parent Star: HD 74156 (G0 V) in the constellation of Hydra is located at a distance of 210.57 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 08 42 25.1222 & Declination: 04 34 41.151. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 7.62. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.89 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone is 2.77 AU and the estimated stellar lifespan of the star is 8638 million years. Orbiting around HD 46375 are planetary bodies HD 74156 b & HD 74156 c.

HD 74156 b is believed to be a Clarified Jovian, Eccentric and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is Blue and cloudless and the Planet it is outside of habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.294 AU. The estimated mass of the planet is 1.86 ± 0.03 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 51.643 ± 0.011 Days and was discovered by Michel Mayor, Dominique Naef, Francesco Pepe, Didier Queloz, Nuno C. Santos, Stephane Udry, Michel Burnet in 2001.

HD 74156 c is believed to be a Water Cloud Jovian, Eccentric and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is White water ice clouds and the Planet it is out side of habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 3.4 AU . The estimated mass of the planet is 6.17 ± 0.23 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 2025 ± 11 Days and was discovered by Michel Mayor, Dominique Naef, Francesco Pepe, Didier Queloz, Nuno C. Santos, Stephane Udry, Michel Burnet in 2001.

HD 82943

Parent Star: HD 82943 (G0) in the constellation of Hydra is located at a distance of 89.56 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 09 34 50.7361 & Declination: -12 07 46.365. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 6.54. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.63 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone is 1.97 AU and the estimated stellar lifespan of the star is 8638 million years. Orbiting around HD 82943 are planetary bodies HD 82943 b & HD 82943 c.

HD 82943 b is believed to be a Sulfurous Cloud Jovian, Eccentric and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is Sulfur stained clouds of water or H2SO4 and the Planet it is inner edge of habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.73 AU. The estimated mass of the planet is 0.88 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 221.6 ± 2.7 Days and was discovered by Michel Mayor, Dominique Naef, Francesco Pepe, Didier Queloz, Nuno Santos, Stephane Udry and Michel Burnet in 2001.

HD 82943 c is believed to be a water cloud jovian, eccentric and its exitence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is white water ice clouds and the planet it is at earthlike temperatures at mean orbital distance of 1.16 AU. The estimated mass of the planet is 1.63 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 444.6 ± 8.8 Days and was discovered byMichel Mayor, Dominique Naef, Francesco Pepe, Didier Queloz, Nuno Santos, Stephane Udry and Michel Burnet in 2001.

HD 72659

Parent Star: HD 72659 (G0 V) in the constellation of Hydra is located at a distance of 167.64 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 08 34 03.1895 & Declination: -01 34 05.583. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 7.46. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.78 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone is 2.43 AU and the estimated stellar lifespan of the star is 11663 million years . Orbiting around HD 72659 is planet HD 72659 b the planet is believed to be a Water Cloud Jovian and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is White water ice clouds and the Planet it is outside of habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 4.16 AU. The estimated mass of the planet is 2.96 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 3177.4 Days and was discovered by Butler et al. on the 13 Jun 2002.

2M1207 b

Photographed in 2004 using adaptive optics in the near infrared, 2M1207 b is 100 times fainter than its companion brown dwarf. Spectral analysis indicates that the object is similar to a brown dwarf, and it's brightness indicates low mass, both of which would be indicative of a young giant planet. Given the spectral analysis, it is unlikely this is a background star or galaxy, although it is possible that the object is a more massive background brown dwarf. Further observations will be needed of this object's motion relative to 2M1207 over the next few years to determine if it really is an orbiting planet. If 2M1207 b is indeed a young giant planet, then it would be the first exoplanet ever photographed directly.