The system is notable for being the source of one of the most rapid superluminal (faster than light) jets in our galaxy. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable. The brightest stars in the cluster shine at magnitude 15. It is good to remember the reason why Sagittarius is a centaur in the first place. The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured this richly detailed new image of the Lagoon Nebula. Also discovered were more than two thousand other X-ray sources and huge lobes of 20 million-degree Centigrade gas (the red loops in the image at approximately the 2 oclock and 7 oclock positions). Sagittarius is an astrological sign transitted by the Sun from approximately November 23rd to December 22nd. The legions of stars in a globular cluster orbit about a shared centre of gravity. Most likely it comes from different cultural interpretations of the constellations. The nebula spans about 35 and is located only 0.36 arc minutes from the cluster NGC 6440. They both were known to hunt with a bow and arrow (though this is a bit misleading as centaurs did not traditionally use a bow and arrow. Image: ESO. It is an H II region, containing a stellar nursery full of embryonic stars. The brightest stars in the cluster are 20th magnitude. Sigma Sagittarii is also notable for being the brightest star that can be occulted by an exterior planet. The Trifid Nebula is a bright, colourful emission/reflection nebula in Sagittarius. Sagittarius There are two separate myths connected to the Archer, but both share themes of knowledge, art, and wisdom. Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it? The cluster lies at a distance of about 16,000 light years and has a magnitude of 9.30. It lasted for full 72 seconds, but has never been detected since. Stars orbit the object at speeds greater than those of any other stars found in the Milky Way. The Arches Cluster is the densest open cluster known in the Milky Way. The Sagittarius Dwarf is believed to already have orbited the Milky Way about 10 times in the last billion years or so, and it still appears to have coherence as an elongated ellipse despite being torn apart by enormous tidal forces as a result of the interaction. Messier included the cluster in his catalogue in June 1764. It is between 18,000 and 19,000 light years distant and has an apparent magnitude of 7.66. (Flare stars are typically dim red dwarfs or less massive brown dwarfs.). In fiction, Rukbat is probably best known from Anne McCaffreys Dragonriders of Pern series of novels and stories. Terzan 5 is a globular cluster about 18,800 light years away in the Milky Way bulge. Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign of the zodiac. NGC 6528 is another globular cluster, located just to the southwest of NGC 6522. The star was named after the shape of the nebula it illuminates, the Pistol Nebula. The Omega Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 6.0 and is between 5,000 and 6,000 light years distant. The cluster is located at a distance of 75,700 light years from Earth. With Sagittarius . Satyrs have human heads and torsos with goat legs (and sometimes horns). It's just a matter of which stars you think go with which other ones. The Upsilon Sagittarii system is about 1,672 light years distant and has an orbital period of 137.939 days. Crotus invented archery and lived on Mount Helicon. The cluster was discovered by William Herschel on August 7, 1784. The binary system has a combined apparent magnitude of 2.60. The stars traditional name, Kaus Borealis, means the northern bow. It marks the top of the centaurs bow. The Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 4.5 and is approximately 65,000 light years distant. It occupies an area of 867 square degrees. The image of the Peony Nebula star was taken by NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope in its naturally dusty region. Chiron was wise and skilled not only in the arts of war but also healing and philosophy. It goes by many different names: Omega Nebula, Horseshoe Nebula, Lobster Nebula, Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, and Sharpless 45. Sagittarius A is a radio source located at the centre of the Milky Way, in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. In this picture, foreground stars look big and golden when set against the backdrop of the thousands of white, silvery stars that make up M69. It lies at an estimated distance of 50,000 light years from Earth on the other side of our galaxy. Beta-1 Sagittarii, or Arkab Prior (prior because it leads Beta-2 across the sky), is a double star approximately 378 light years distant. It was first discovered by the French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil in 1747. It lies at a distance of 26,100 light years from Earth. The white dwarf emits sufficient ultraviolet radiation to illuminate the gas it has expelled, which can just be seen in this image as the ring of red material. In Greek myths, Sagittarius is shown as the representative of the Greek god Zeus. The cluster contains 18 RR Lyrae type variable stars. The cluster was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. Image: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope, Martin Pugh; Processing: Robert Gendler. It is the destination of a crew of women who travel onboard the Colonial Unit 122 to the Delta Sagittarii star system carrying a supply of sperm purged of the Y chromosome. The Omega Nebula is an emission nebula in Sagittarius. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.97 and is approximately 170 light years distant. This is the most popular version of the Sagittarius story. It is a suspected binary star, even though a companion has never been confirmed. Crotus and Chiron share a lot in common. Sagittarius, the ninth astrological sign, symbolizes higher consciousness. Sagittarius is Latin for "archer," and since ancient times the constellation has been represented as a creature wielding a bow and arrow. The sign is represented by the toxophilite or a centaur, which is half human and half pony. Astronomers recently discovered that all the stars in Terzan 7 were born at around the same time, and are about eight billion years old. The clusters, Arches (upper right), Quintuplet (upper center), and the GC cluster (bottom center), contain massive stars that appear as very bright, point-like X-ray sources when winds from their surfaces collide with those from an orbiting companion. WR 104 is a triple star consisting of a Wolf-Rayet star and two hot blue main sequence companions. It is a very fast rotator, spinning with a speed of more than 200 kilometres per second, which is about 100 times faster than the Sun. The star lies at a center of a planetary nebula, formed after the stars red giant stage about 8,300 years ago. It is a 10th magnitude star. It is also associated with Crotus, the satyr who kept company of the Muses on Mount Helicon. This is the stars modern name, which is either Babylonian or Assyrian in origin. Mythology of the constellation Sagittarius. It is one of the stars that form the Teapot asterism; it marks the junction of the handle and the lid of the Teapot. Messier 25 is an open cluster with an apparent magnitude of 4.6, about 2,000 light years from Earth. SAGITTARIUS, The Archer, represents a centaur - half-man, half-horse, descended from Ixion, the man who dared to lust after Hera, wife of Zeus. The planets SWEEPS-04, orbiting the magnitude 18 star SWEEPS J175853.92291120.6 (F5V), and SWEEPS-11, with the parent star SWEEPS J175902.67291153.5, are among the most distant exoplanets known, both located at a distance of 27,710 light years from Earth. Mu Sagittarii is a multiple star system in Sagittarius, with individual components designated Polis A through Polis E. Its traditional name, Polis, comes from the Coptic Egyptian word for foal.. Credit: Wikipedia/Public domain The constellation is associated with the centaur Chiron. Some of the brightest stars in Sagittarius Delta, Epsilon, Gamma-2, Lambda, Zeta, Phi, Tau and Sigma Sagittarii form an asterism known as the Teapot. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. Named for its most prominent five stars, the cluster was only discovered in 1990. Box Nebula (NGC 6445), image: NASA and STScI. It was discovered by Edward Charles Pickering on August 18, 1882. NGC 6624, based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA). Another companion star is only 13th magnitude and can be seen 33 arc seconds away from the primary, while the faintest star in the system is 10th magnitude and is separated from the brightest star by 93 arc seconds. The complex of star forming regions is obscured by interstellar dust, but it can be observed in radio, infrared and X-ray bands. Another aspect of M69 lends itself to the bejewelled metaphor: As globular clusters go, M69 is one of the most metal-rich on record. It was discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751 and included by Messier in his catalogue in 1778. A gas giant planet was discovered orbiting the orange dwarf HD 164604 (K3.5Vk) in 2010. It is not fully understood how planetary nebulae form such a wide variety of shapes and structures; some appear to be spherical, some elliptical, others shoot material in waves from their polar regions, some look like hourglasses or figures of eight, and others resemble large, messy stellar explosions to name but a few. Sagittarius is one of the largest southern constellations. The name is derived from the astronomical constellation Sagittarius, meaning "archer" in Latin. The star is approximately 89.1 light years distant from Earth. The dwarf galaxy has no shortage of stellar splendour and pyrotechnics. Located on the far side of our galaxy, the cluster is heavily obscured by dust, but visible in infrared wavelengths. The brightest stars in the cluster are 16th magnitude. In astronomy, the term metal has a specialised meaning: it refers to any element heavier than the two most common elements in our Universe, hydrogen and helium. Sagittarius constellation, Baades Window and the Teapot, photo: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay (STScI) and A. Fujii. Located 25,000 light years from Earth, the cluster lies only about 100 light years from the Galactic centre. The cluster is about 34 light years in radius, has an apparent magnitude of 9.06 and is approximately 29,300 light years distant. Sagittarius in mythology. The offspring of this union was Kentauros, who was shunned by gods and . Delta Sagittarii is a multiple star system approximately 306 light years distant in the constellation Sagittarius. It may look like something from The Lord of the Rings, but this fiery swirl is actually a planetary nebula known as ESO 456-67. Astronomers have nicknamed it the Garden-sprinkler Nebula due to its appearance. These are pulsating stars belonging to the spectral class A (and occasionally F), usually with a mass of about half the Suns, used as standard candles to measure galactic distances. The Mythology Behind The Sagittarius Constellation Explained. Some explanations suggest that there is something different about clusters that form within dwarf galaxies, giving them a different composition. Ascella also has a dim companion 75 arc seconds away. 1806-20 contains at least three Wolf-Rayet stars, an OB supergiant, the soft gamma repeater SGR 1806-20 and LBV 1806-20, once of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way. Never observed anywhere in the bulge before, this peculiar cocktail of stars suggests that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulges primordial building blocks, most likely the relic of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way during its very early days. It is obscured from view by large cosmic dust clouds in the galaxys spiral arms. It was discovered by Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna in 1654. A transiting planet was spotted orbiting the magnitude 16 eclipsing variable star OGLE-TR-10 (G2V) in 2002. It is a blue variable star that is about four million times as luminous as our Sun and 120-200 times as massive. The archer is usually identified as the centaur Chiron, though sometimes held to be a similar figure known as Crotus, a satyr. NGC 6723 is a globular star cluster in Sagittarius, near the border with Corona Australis. Chiron the centaur was brilliant and kind a teacher to figures like Jason and Achilles, and a friend to the hero Heracles (via Greek Mythology). By 1999, the star became invisible in optical wavelengths as a result of being obscured by a very thick shell of dust. Ross 154 is a red dwarf only 9.68 light years away from the solar system. Messier 21, Atlas Image mosaic obtained as part of the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. The Ancient Gods of Greek Myth The psychological branch of Astrology uses the concept of primeval images, or ' archetypes ' constellated at the very roots of a person's being. The star cluster 1806-20 is home to many massive stars that are expected to end their lives as supernovas in the next few million years. Gamma Sagittarii is a K type (K0III) giant star with an apparent magnitude of 2.98. Sigma Sagittarii is sometimes also known as Nunki. The star has a luminosity 3,300 times that of the Sun and about seven solar masses. This was the largest event of its kind seen in the Milky Way since 1604, when the type Ia supernova SN 1604 (Keplers Nova) was observed by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the direction of Ophiuchus constellation. The clusters small central region has one of the highest star densities in the Milky Way. It is the most highly magnetized object ever discovered. People born under the Zodiac sign of Sagittarius, from November 22 to December 21, are said to be magnetic, passionate, adventurous, and intense, according to Allure perfect traits, in fact, to describe the archer figure that represents them. The star was last occulted by a planet on November 17, 1981, when Venus passed in front of it. Astrology A medieval Sagittarius found in the Church of Notre-Dame, Sablires, France The star is classified as a semiregular variable of the SRc type. In English, the constellation is known as the Archer. About a fifth of the more than 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way have undergone a core collapse. The constellation contains the Arches Cluster, the Quintuplet Cluster with the luminous Pistol Star, the Galactic centre, the radio source Sagittarius A, and a number of very famous deep sky objects, including the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy, Barnards Galaxy, the Bubble Nebula, and as many as 15 Messier objects, among them the Sagittarius Star Cloud (Messier 24), the Omega Nebula (Messier 17), Messier 18, the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8), and the Trifid Nebula (Messier 20). Most likely, the primary component is an A type supergiant. It has an estimated age of about 220 million years. It is a sparse cluster with an estimated age of only 7.5 billion years. The myth of Sagittarius being cold-hearted is a mere misconception that is based on surface level observations. Image: ESA/Hubble and NASA. Soft gamma repeaters (SGR) are objects that emit enormous bursts of gamma-rays and X-rays at irregular intervals. The stars traditional name, Kaus Media, means the middle bow. The primary star in the Delta Sagittarii system has three dim companions: Delta Sagittarii B, a 14th magnitude star 26 arc seconds away, Delta Sagittarii C, a 15th magnitude star 40 arc seconds away, and Delta Sagittarii D, a 13th magnitude star 58 arc seconds away. Messier 23 is an open star cluster, discovered by Charles Messier in June 1764. It was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Mchain in 1780. It has a radius of 0.95 arc minutes. Terzan 7 has a considerable number of blue stragglers and the clusters centre has a particularly high concentration of these stars. It is a blue class B giant with an apparent magnitude of 1.79 and a luminosity 375 times that of the Sun. The signal was received by SETI researcher Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977 at the Ohio State University. What's strange about this centaur is that it has wings, two heads, of which one is that of a panther and the other is a human head. The Teapot in Sagittarius, image: Wikisky. As the stars interact with each other over time, lighter stars tend to pick up speed and migrate out toward the clusters edges, while the heavier stars slow and congregate in orbits toward the centre. Centaurs are considered beasts in mythology due to the fact that they are half horse. It's easy to see why the myths behind Centaurus and Sagittarius often get confused. A Hubble Space Telescope photo of the planetary nebula Henize 3-1475. Emerson/VISTA. It is one of the nearest globular star clusters to Earth. This galaxy is currently colliding with, and being absorbed by, the Milky Way, which is a monster in size when compared to this tiny one. The cause of these outbursts is not understood, but the rapidity with which they rise and fall indicates that they are occurring near the event horizon, or point of no return, around the black hole. It is approximately 96.1 light years distant. It is made of clouds of dust and gas that circle Sagittarius A* and fall onto it at exceptionally high velocities, up to 1000 kilometres per second. Messier 21 is another open star cluster in Sagittarius. Charles Messier discovered it in 1780 and subsequently included it in his catalogue. The nebulas central star is more than 12,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Globular clusters are dense collections of old stars. It has a radius 11 times solar and is 52 times more luminous than the Sun. Each sign is represented by an animal or a mythological figure. The cluster has an apparent magnitude of 6.9 and is about 2,150 light years distant. Sometimes, Sagittarius is also associated with the Greek goddess Tyche and the Norse God Thor. The constellation Sagittarius contains 17 named stars. The region has relatively low amounts of dust and allows a view of the Galactic centre. Lambda Sagittarii is an orange giant star, belonging to the spectral class K1+IIIb, with an apparent magnitude of 2.82. The planetary nebula in the Sagittarius Cluster, designated GJJC1 is believed to be only 6,000 years old and has a blue star at the centre. Sagittarius is usually depicted as a centaur holding a bow and arrow. This cosmic pair is set against millions of glowing stars from the brightest part of the Milky Way a region so dense with stars that barely any dark sky is seen across the picture.This part of the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) is one of the richest star fields in the whole sky the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. Image: ESO/F. Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, acknowledgement: M. Novak. The centaur is depicted as aiming an arrow toward the heart of the neighbouring constellation Scorpio, represented by the red supergiant star Antares. (In 2003, the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy was discovered and recognized as the nearest neighbour.). NGC 6440 is another globular cluster in Sagittarius. The Sagittarius Cluster is located near the galactic bulge, the central group of stars in the Milky Way. As per Greek folklore, Sagittarius is a centaur. The nebula contains an open cluster of 35 hot young stars which illuminate its gases. The star was discovered in February 1996 by Yukio Sakurai, an amateur astronomer. However, because of its compact nature, M75 can barely be distinguished from a star when viewed in binoculars. Sometimes Sagittarius is wrongly identified as the centaur Chiron, represented by the constellation Centaurus. It has an apparent size of 4.75 by 4.75. Vast amounts of energy are also released when these stars go out as supernovas, heating the surrounding material. The field of view is 35 x 34 arcmin. The brightest companion star is an F class dwarf with an apparent magnitude of 7.77. Return from Sagittarius Myth to the Constellation Myths page. Image: ESO. Because it has an imposing size and energy, Sagittarius A East is believed to be a remnant of a star that came close to the central black hole and was gravitationally compressed. Image: Wikimedia Commons/Jschulman555 (CC BY-SA 4.0). It has an apparent magnitude of 3.17. Zeta Sagittarii is another binary star in Sagittarius. The star system lies approximately 8,400 light years away. However, this does not make them cold . The significance of the name is unknown, except that it is a proper name. (However, most viewers don't see an archer when they look at Sagittariusthe teapot shape is far easier to identify.) The companion star has an apparent magnitude of 5.84 and is located about 359 light years from Earth. NGC 6638 is a class VI globular cluster occupying an area of 2 arc minutes about half a degree to the east of Lambda Sagittarii. In mythology, Sagittarius represents a centaur, which is a half human, half horse creature with the torso of a man and the body and four legs of a horse. The myth of centaurs: summary. Pistol Star and Nebula (false colour composite image), photo: Don F. Figer (UCLA) and NASA. The cluster has a highly concentrated core, with the majority of M75s stars located in a large nucleus. This image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESOs La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the bright star cluster NGC 6520 and its neighbour, the strangely shaped dark cloud Barnard 86. This striking view of the globular star cluster Messier 55 in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer) was obtained in infrared light with the VISTA survey telescope at ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile. The star is a relatively young one, with an estimated age of less than a billion years. NGC 6569 is another globular cluster visible in the vicinity of Gamma-2 Sagittarii, about 2 degrees south of the star. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. Nir al Beldat was later translated into Latin as Lucida Oppidi, which means the brightest of the town.. Image: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K.Baganoff et al. Sagittarians are complex individuals that have a unique perspective on life and relationships. The primary component in the Eta Sagittarii system is a type M3.5 red giant classified as an irregular variable star: The stars apparent magnitude varies from 3.08 to 3.12. It is 15-20 light years in radius and contains about 150 stars. The cloud is about 600 light years wide and approximately 10,000 light years distant. Gamma Sagittarii is also known by its traditional names, Alnasl and Nushaba. The stars temperature is also variable and changes from about 2,500 K to 3,500 K, which is unprecedented in a star of this type. It was discovered by William Herschel on May 28, 1786. The nebula expands at the velocity of about 32 km/s and occupies an area of 44 arc seconds. Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, and G. Piotto (Universit degli Studi di Padova), and E. Noyola (Max Planck Institut fr extraterrestrische Physik). It belongs to the spectral class F2II. When this happens, the stars light drastically diminishes and ceases to excite the surrounding gas, so the nebula fades from view. It is now believed to be located at least 15 times farther away. It is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and headed for a collision with our galaxy. These same colours can be seen in the famous and impressive Ring Nebula (heic1310), a prominent example of a nebula like this one. In Greek mythology, Sagittarius is commonly thought to represent a centaur, a war-like creature with the torso of a man and the body of a horse. Pi Sagittarii is a triple star system approximately 440 light years distant, with an apparent magnitude of 2.88. NGC 6559 is a star-forming region consisting of emission and reflection nebulae and dark absorption nebulae, lying about 5,000 light years from Earth. NGC 6578, image: Judy Schmidt (CC BY 2.0). Satyrs have human heads and torsos with goat legs (and sometimes horns). Polis is about 3,912 light years distant from Earth. In Sagittarius Mythology, Sagittarius is described as The Centaur (one-half horse, one-half human). Image: European Space Agency, A. Riera (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain) and P. Garcia-Lario (European Space Agency ISO Data Centre, Spain). Artist conception of the December 27, 2004 gamma ray flare expanding from SGR 1806-20. The three-letter abbreviation, adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1922, is Sgr. Some stars maintain relatively circular orbits, while others loop out into the clusters fringes. This image was taken using the FORS instrument, mounted on ESOs Very Large Telescope. It was discovered by William Herschel on May 22, 1784. It is a hydrogen fusing dwarf star that belongs to the spectral type B2.5 V. It has an apparent magnitude of 2.1. According to the Roman author Hyginus, Crotus was the son of Pan and the archer the constellation was named after. It has about a third of the luminosity of the Eta Carinae binary system in the constellation Carina and is believed to radiate as much energy in 20 seconds as the Sun does in a year. It is located between Zeta and Sigma Sagittarii. They guard their hearts carefully because they are highly sensitive individuals that fear being hurt. With a mass of 10,000 solar masses, it is about 10 times more massive than typical open clusters in the Milky Way. Omega Sagittarii is a G-type subgiant marking the northeast corner of the Terebellum, about 78 light years distant from Earth. It is classified as an irregular variable star, with an apparent magnitude varying from 4.51 to 4.65 with a period of about 20 days. The Hourglass Nebula contains several Herbig-Haro objects, small patches of nebulosity indicating that there are newly born stars in the vicinity, and providing direct evidence of star forming activity in the region. Chiron was an intelligent, wise, and good-natured creatureunlike most of his kind. The nuclear fusion that powers stars created all of the metallic elements in nature, from the calcium in our bones to the carbon in diamonds. Since the rotational axis of the system points roughly in the direction of our planet, and fast-spinning Wolf-Rayet stars are believed to produce gamma-ray bursts along their rotational axes when they meet their end, there has been a lot of debate about whether Earth will be affected by the supernova. SGR 1806-20 was identified as a soft gamma repeater in 1979. M21 has an apparent magnitude of 6.5 and lies at an approximate distance of 4,250 light years from Earth. It is a fire sign, considered to be a masculine, positive, and extrovert in character.