Sagitta in the context of Gamma Sagittae


Sagitta in the context of Gamma Sagittae

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⭐ Core Definition: Sagitta

Sagitta is a dim but distinctive constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for 'arrow', not to be confused with the significantly larger constellation Sagittarius 'the archer'. It was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. Although it dates to antiquity, Sagitta has no star brighter than 3rd magnitude and has the third-smallest area of any constellation.

Gamma Sagittae is the constellation's brightest star, with an apparent magnitude of 3.47. It is an aging red giant star 90% as massive as the Sun that has cooled and expanded to a radius 54 times greater than it. Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, and Theta Sagittae are each multiple stars whose components can be seen in small telescopes. V Sagittae is a cataclysmic variable—a binary star system composed of a white dwarf accreting mass of a donor star that is expected to go nova and briefly become the most luminous star in the Milky Way and one of the brightest stars in our sky around the year 2083. Two star systems in Sagitta are known to have Jupiter-like planets, while a third—15 Sagittae—has a brown dwarf companion.

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Sagitta in the context of Delphinus

Delphinus is a small constellation in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, close to the celestial equator. Its name is the Latin version for the Greek word for dolphin (δελφίς). It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. It is one of the smaller constellations, ranked 69th in size. Delphinus' five brightest stars form a distinctive asterism symbolizing a dolphin with four stars representing the body and one the tail. It is bordered (clockwise from north) by Vulpecula, Sagitta, Aquila, Aquarius, Equuleus and Pegasus.

Delphinus is a faint constellation with only two stars brighter than an apparent magnitude of 4, Beta Delphini (Rotanev) at magnitude 3.6 and Alpha Delphini (Sualocin) at magnitude 3.8.

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Sagitta in the context of WR 124

WR 124 is a Wolf–Rayet star in the constellation of Sagitta surrounded by a ring nebula of expelled material known as M1-67. It is one of the fastest runaway stars in the Milky Way with a radial velocity around 200 km/s. It was discovered by Paul W. Merrill in 1938, identified as a high-velocity Wolf–Rayet star. In 1982, Anthony Moffat et al. discovered that WR 124 is a variable star. It was given its variable star designation, QR Sagittae, in 1985. It is listed in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars with a brightness range of 0.08 magnitudes.

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Sagitta in the context of M1-67

M1-67 is an ejecta nebula that surrounds the Wolf–Rayet star WR 124, which is about 6.4 kpc from Earth in the constellation of Sagitta. It contains dust which is caught up in WR 124's solar wind and which absorbs much of the star's light. It was discovered by American astronomer Paul W. Merrill in 1938, at the same time that he discovered the star it surrounds. It is approximately 6 light years across, making it about 20,000 years old.

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Sagitta in the context of Brocchi's Cluster

Brocchi's Cluster (also known as Collinder 399, Cr 399 or Al Sufi's Cluster) is an asterism of 10 stars. Six of the stars appear in a row, across 1.3° of the night sky. The cluster is in the south of the constellation Vulpecula, near the border with Sagitta. Its nickname is the Coathanger. None of these ten stars are believed to be gravitationally bound to each other, thus they are not a star cluster, a fact established by measurements taken by the Hipparcos satellite in 1997. An additional 30 or so much fainter stars are considered by some to be part of the asterism.

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Sagitta in the context of Summer Triangle

The Summer Triangle is an astronomical asterism in the northern celestial hemisphere. The defining vertices of this apparent triangle are at Altair, Deneb, and Vega, each of which is the brightest star of its constellation (Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra, respectively). The greatest declination is +45° and lowest is +9° meaning the three can be seen from all places in the Northern Hemisphere and from the home of most people resident in the Southern Hemisphere. The two stars in Aquila and Cygnus represent the head of an eagle and tail of a swan that looks east inscribed into the triangle and forming the altitude of the triangle. Two small constellations, Sagitta and Vulpecula, lie between Aquila in the south of the triangle and Cygnus and Lyra to the north.

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