The night sky now, like thousands of years ago, magically affects a person, fascinates and staggers the imagination with many constellations. Ursa Major, Bootes, Cassiopeia ... Everyone knows these names, this is the northern hemisphere. And the southern one: the Big Dog, the Southern Cross, on which seafarers have been charting the ship for more than a hundred years. And each constellation has its own history, its own legend, as well as the constellation Centaurus, known in the southern hemisphere.
Legend of the constellation
The centaur (or centaur) was named Chiron and was born by the oceanid Filira from Kronos. He was half man, half horse, since his father Kronos, being caught by his wife Rhea, turned into a horse. Chiron was very different from all the other centaurs. He was kinder, wiser. He brought up such heroes of the ancient world as Theseus, Achilles, Jason. Even Chiron taught the art of healing the famous Asclepius. This centaur heroically gives his life for the imprisoned Prometheus, granting him immortality. For this act, the gods elevated Chiron to the night sky, forever immortalized it, turning it into the constellation Centaurus.
General information about the constellation
As you know, the constellation is located in the southern hemisphere, unfortunately, you canโt see it from the territory of Russia. More precisely, theoretically, a part of it can be seen, but it is so close to the horizon that the Centaurus is practically not visible. The constellation is best observed at latitudes from 26 ยฐ north to 90 ยฐ south. It is clearly visible in the first half of spring, namely in March and April. In size,
this constellation occupies about 1060 square degrees and is in ninth place.
This cluster of stars in the night sky includes 389 objects. All of them can be considered without using any optics. Near the Centaurus are other constellations, such as the Wolf, Ship, Hydra, Southern Cross. By the way, even before the 17th century, the Southern Cross was not an independent element of the starry sky, but was part of the constellation Centaurus.
The most famous objects of the Centaurus
Alpha Centauri, or Rigel Centaurus, is one of the brightest stars that enter the constellation. It has 0.7 magnitudes and is a whole system consisting of a binary star - Alpha and Beta, as well as a red dwarf called Proxima Centauri. Which constellation still has such a bright
star system, and even located so close to our planet? From Proxima to Earth no more than 4.4 light years. No wonder "proxima" translates as "closest."
By the way, a large number of different legends and legends were associated with these stars among the wild peoples who once lived in the southern hemisphere. And Alpha Centauri in its spectrum, as well as its specific gravity is very similar to the Sun. Moreover, an earth-type planet revolves around a star.
Briefly about the rest of the stars
In addition to stars such as Alpha and Proxima Centauri, the constellation is also known for other elements. For example, there is also Beta Centauri in it - a star of the first magnitude or, as it is also called, Agen, which means "knee" in translation. Its other name is Khadar (translated as "land"). Like Alpha Centauri, it consists of several stars, but, unlike it, is located much farther from the Earth. Its distance from us is 525 light years.
In terms of brightness, Khadar is in tenth place in the night sky. The third luminous star of the constellation Centaurus is called Theta. It is also called Menkent, which means "the shoulder of a centaur." Its size is 2.06 magnitude; it is located at a distance of more than 60 light years from the solar system. It is also worth mentioning such a famous star included in this constellation as Lucy, according to the scientific one - BPM 37093. This white dwarf got its name thanks to the song of the Beatles group. The song is called "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."
Other constellation objects
The constellation also boasts the presence of objects of the so-called deep space. That is, distant star clusters and nebulae. One of them is the globular cluster under the number NGC 5139. It can be safely attributed to the most extensive and brightest in the Milky Way galaxy. It contains several million stars that belong to the so-called population 2, that is, those that were discovered first in our starry sky. In the middle of this cluster, some stars are located to each other at a distance of less than one tenth of a light year. Also, this cluster of stars is located closer to the solar system than others.
The constellation Centaurus also has a galaxy in the form of a lens. Her number is NGC 5128. She has a very low degree of star formation, located between the spiral and elliptical type of galaxies. It consists mainly of red stars that are at the last evolutionary stage. In its brightness, it takes fifth place.
You can also mention the nebula under the number NGC 3918. Sometimes it is called "Southerner", and if you look at it through a telescope, it will look like a small blue circle that resembles the planet Neptune.
Little conclusion
The Centaurus constellation belongs to the family of Hercules constellations, is one of the longest known constellations, shrouded in myths and legends. But is it the only one in the night sky? How many interesting, new, unknown things are hidden in the starry sky. His secrets became the cause of the mass of legends and legends. Many astronomical facts are already known to mankind, such as, for example, the history of the origin of our planet. But the question remains whether we are alone in the Universe. We still have to figure it out. Perhaps it will take more than one hundred years. In the meantime, we can only guess about the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.