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Beta Eridani
Beta Eridani (β Eridani, abbreviated Beta Eri, β Eri), formally named Cursa , is the second-brightest star in the constellation of Eridanus, located in the northeast end of this constellation near the shared border with Orion. The apparent visual magnitude of this star is 2.796, so it can be viewed with the naked eye in dark skies. Parallax measurements yield an estimated distance of about from the Earth. Nomenclature ''Beta Eridani'' is the star's Bayer designation. It has the traditional name ''Cursa'' derived from ', "the Chair (or "Footstool") of the Central One". This is the name of the star association consisting of this star along with Lambda Eridani, Psi Eridani and Tau Orionis. According to a NASA catalogue of stars, ' was the title of three stars: β Eri is ''Cursa'', Psi Eridani ', and Lambda Eridani ' (excluding Tau Orionis). In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bayer Designation
A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. The brighter stars were assigned their first systematic names by the German astronomer Johann Bayer in 1603, in his star atlas '' Uranometria''. Bayer catalogued only a few stars too far south to be seen from Germany, but later astronomers (including Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and Benjamin Apthorp Gould) supplemented Bayer's catalog with entries for southern constellations. Scheme Bayer assigned a lowercase Greek letter (alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ), etc.) or a Latin letter (A, b, c, etc.) to each star he catalogued, combined with the Latin name of the star's parent constellation in genitive (possessive) form. The constellation name is frequently abbreviated to a standard three-letter form. For example, Aldebaran in the constellat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sky, night, but their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed stars, fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterism (astronomy), asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated to stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye, all within the Milky Way galaxy. A star's life star formation, begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium and trace amounts of heavier elements. Its stellar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Stars (Chinese Constellation)
The Three Stars mansion () is one of the twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese constellations. It is one of the western mansions of the White Tiger The white tiger or bleached tiger is a leucistic pigmentation variant of the Mainland tiger. It is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, in the Sunderbans region and .... This collection of seven bright stars is visible during winter in the Northern Hemisphere (summer in the Southern). Asterisms References {{Chinese constellation Chinese constellations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Astronomy
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions have been found on oracle bones unearthed at Anyang, dating back to the mid-Shang dynasty. The core of the "mansion" (宿 ''xiù'') system also took shape around this period, by the time of King Wu Ding (1250–1192 BCE). Detailed records of astronomical observations began during the Warring States period (fourth century BCE) and flourished from the Han period onward. Chinese astronomy was equatorial, centered on close observation of circumpolar stars, and was based on different principles from those in traditional Western astronomy, where heliacal risings and settings of zodiac constellations formed the basic ecliptic framework. Joseph Needham has described the ancient Chinese as the most persistent and accurate ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IAU Working Group On Star Names
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) in May 2016 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars for the international astronomical community. It operates under Division C – Education, Outreach and Heritage. The IAU states that it is keen to make a distinction between the terms ''name'' and ''designation''. To the IAU, ''name'' refers to the (usually colloquial) term used for a star in everyday conversation, while ''designation'' is solely alphanumerical, and used almost exclusively in official catalogues and for professional astronomy. (The WGSN notes that transliterated Bayer designations (e.g., Tau Ceti) are considered a special historical case and are treated as designations.) Terms of reference The terms of reference for the WGSN for the period 2016–2018 were approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its meeting on 6 May 2016. In summary, these are to: * establish IAU guidelines for the proposal and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and development through global cooperation. It was founded in 1919 and is based in Paris, France. The IAU is composed of individual members, who include both professional astronomers and junior scientists, and national members, such as professional associations, national societies, or academic institutions. Individual members are organised into divisions, committees, and working groups centered on particular subdisciplines, subjects, or initiatives. As of 2018, the Union had over 13,700 individual members, spanning 90 countries, and 82 national members. Among the key activities of the IAU is serving as a forum for scientific conferences. It sponsors nine annual symposia and holds a triannual General Assembly that sets policy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tau Orionis
Tau Orionis (τ Ori, τ Orionis) is a solitary star in the constellation Orion. If an imaginary line is drawn north-west between the stars Rigel and Mintaka, Tau Orionis can be found roughly one-sixth of the way to Mintaka. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.58. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 6.6 mas, it is located around 490 light years from the Sun. This is a B-type giant star with a stellar classification of B5III5 III. It has around 5.4 times the radius of the Sun and 6.2 times the Sun's mass. The star shines with 933 times the solar luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 10,829 K. it is around 63 million years old, with a peculiar velocity through space of 16.9 km/s. Tau Orionis has three visual companions: magnitude 11.0 component B at an angular separation of 33.30″ along a position angle of 251°; magnitude 10.9 component C lying some 3.80″ from component ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psi Eridani
Psi Eridani, Latinized from ψ Eridani, is a star in the constellation Eridanus. With an apparent visual magnitude is 4.81, it can be seen with the naked eye on a clear, dark night. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 4.41 milliarcseconds, it is located roughly 740 light years away from the Sun. This is a B-type main sequence star with a stellar classification of B3 V. However, Houk and Swift (1999) classed it as a more evolved subgiant star. It is about 32 million years old and has a projected rotational velocity of 52 km/s. The estimated mass is seven times that of the Sun, and it has around 4.5 times the Sun's radius. Psi Eridani shines with 2,878 times the solar luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lambda Eridani
Lambda Eridani (λ Eri) is a star in the constellation Eridanus. It is visible to the naked eye on a dark night with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.27. The distance to this star, based upon an annual parallax shift of 0.00402 arcseconds, is roughly 810 light years. λ Eri is classified in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars as a Beta Cephei variable. The AAVSO International Variable Star Index defines a LERI type of variation. λ Eri is classified as LERI + GCAS since it shows both short term periodic variations and longer timescale eruptive variation. It was one of the first stars where short-period variations were found. The line profile variability periods are 0.702d and 0.269d, with intermittently present periods of 0.6d and 0.75d. The photometric amplitude of the variation is 0.010 magnitude. This is a giant or subgiant Be star with a stellar classification of B2 IVne or B2 III(e)p, depending on the source. It is spinning rapidly w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallax
Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects show a larger parallax than farther objects when observed from different positions, so parallax can be used to determine distances. To measure large distances, such as the distance of a planet or a star from Earth, astronomers use the principle of parallax. Here, the term ''parallax'' is the semi-angle of inclination between two sight-lines to the star, as observed when Earth is on opposite sides of the Sun in its orbit. These distances form the lowest rung of what is called "the cosmic distance ladder", the first in a succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects, serving as a basis for other distance measurements in astronomy forming the higher rungs of the ladder. Parallax also affects optic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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