Maia , designated 20 Tauri (abbreviated 20 Tau), is a star in the constellation of Taurus. It is a blue giant of spectral type B8 III, a chemically peculiar star, and the prototype of the Maia variable class of variable star. Maia is the fourth-brightest star in the Pleiades open star cluster (Messier 45), after Alcyone, Atlas and Electra. It is surrounded by one of the brighter reflection nebulae within the Pleiades, designated NGC 1432 and sometimes called the Maia Nebula. Nomenclature The name Maia originates with the and . Maia is one of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology—stars which are also included in the Pleiades star cluster. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Maia for this star. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. 20 Tauri is the star's Flamsteed designation. Although it is about the 15th brightest star in Taurus, Maia does not have a Bayer designation, but does have the Bright Star Catalogue designation HR 1149 and the Henry Draper Catalogue designation HD 23408. It has been listed as double star WDS J03458+2422; one companion is a 14th magnitude star nearly away that is probably an unrelated background object. The primary is listed as being double following observations of a lunar occultation, but later observations have failed to find any evidence of it being double. Description The distance to Maia has been measured by the Gaia spacecraft using the annual parallax method. In Gaia Data Release 2, the parallax is given as , corresponding to a distance of . The 2007 new Hipparcos reduction gives a statistically more accurate parallax of , indicating a distance of . Analysis of Gaia parallaxes for the whole Pleiades cluster give an average distance of , while VLBI measurements of multiple members give a distance of . Maia's visual magnitude is 3.87, requiring darker skies to be seen. Its bolometric luminosity is 501 times solar, mostly in the ultraviolet, thus suggesting a radius that is 3.6 times that of the Sun and a mass that is 3.8 times solar. Interferometric measurements give an angular diameter of , suggesting a radius of assuming