Corvus (constellation)

Corvus
Constellation

Abbreviation Crv
Genitive Corvi
Pronunciation /ˈkɔːrvəs/,
genitive /ˈkɔːrvaɪ/
Symbolism the Crow/Raven
Right ascension 12
Declination −20
Family Hercules
Quadrant SQ3
Area 184 sq. deg. (70th)
Main stars 4
Bayer/Flamsteed
stars		 10
Stars with planets 1
Stars brighter than 3.00m 3
Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly) 1
Brightest star γ Crv (Gienah) (2.59m)
Nearest star Ross 695
(28.99 ly, 8.89 pc)
Messier objects 0
Meteor showers Corvids (June 26)
Bordering
constellations		 Virgo
Crater
Hydra
Visible at latitudes between +60° and −90°.
Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of May.

Corvus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name comes from the Latin word "raven" or "crow". It includes only 11 stars with brighter than 4.02 magnitudes. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. The four brightest stars, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Beta Corvi form a distinctive quadrilateral in the night sky. The young star Eta Corvi has been found to have two debris disks.

History and mythology

Corvus, Crater, and other constellations seen around Hydra in Urania's Mirror (1825).

The Greek figure of Corvus is modeled on the Babylonian Raven (MUL.UGA.MUSHEN), which was similarly placed sitting on the tail of the Serpent (Greek Hydra). The Babylonian constellation was sacred to Adad, the god of rain and storm; in the second Millennium it would have risen just before the start of the autumnal rainy season.[1]

One myth associated with Corvus is that of Apollo and Coronis. Coronis had been unfaithful to her lover, who learned this information from a pure white crow. Apollo then turned its feathers black in a fit of rage.[2]

Another legend associated with Corvus is that a crow stopped on his way to fetch water for Apollo, in order to eat figs. Instead of telling the truth to Apollo, he lied and said that a snake, Hydra, kept him from the water, while holding a snake in his talons as proof. Apollo saw this to be a lie, however, and flung the crow (Corvus), cup (Crater), and the snake (Hydra) into the sky. He further punished the wayward bird by making sure that it would forever be thirsty, both in real life and in the heavens, where the Cup is barely out of reach.[2]

Equivalents

In Chinese astronomy, the stars of Corvus are located within the Vermillion Bird of the South (南方朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què).[3] The four main stars depict a chariot, Zhen, while Alpha and Eta mark the linchpins for the wheels, and Zeta is Changsha, a coffin.[4]

In Indian astronomy, the first five stars of Corvus correspond to the Hastā, the 11th nakshatra or lunar mansion.[5]

Corvus was recognized as a constellation by several Polynesian cultures. In the Marquesas Islands, it was called Mee; in Pukapuka, it was called Te Manu, and in the Society Islands, it was called Metua-ai-papa.[6]

Characteristics

Covering 183 square degrees and hence 0.446% of the sky, Corvus ranks 70th of the 88 constellations in area.[7] It is bordered by Virgo to the north and east, Hydra to the south, and Crater to the west. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is 'Crv'.[8] The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of six segments (illustrated in infobox). In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 11h 56m 22s and 12h 56m 40s, while the declination coordinates are between -11.68° and -25.20°.[9] Its position in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere means that the whole constellation is visible to observers south of 65°N.[7][lower-alpha 1]

Notable features

The constellation Corvus as it can be seen by the naked eye.

Stars

The German cartographer Johann Bayer used the Greek letters Alpha through Eta to label the most prominent stars in the constellation. John Flamsteed gave nine stars Flamsteed designations, while one star he designated in the neighbouring constellation Crater—31 Crateris—ended up in Corvus.[10] Within the constellation's borders, there are 29 stars brighter than or equal to apparent magnitude 6.5.[lower-alpha 2][7]

Four principal stars, Delta, Gamma, Epsilon, and Beta Corvi, form an asterism known as "the "Spica's Spanker"[12] or "the Sail".[13][14] Gamma and Delta serve as pointers toward Spica. Also called Gienah, Gamma is the brightest star in Corvus at magnitude 2.59.[15] Its traditional name means "wing",[15] the star marking the left wing in Bayer's Uranometria.[10] 154±1 light-years from Earth,[16] it is a blue-white hued giant star of spectral type B8III that is 4.2+0.4
−0.3 times as massive as the Sun.[17] Around 160+40
−30 million years old,[17] it has exhausted its core hydrogen and begun expanding and cooling as it moves away from the main sequence.[15] A binary star, it has a companion orange or red dwarf star of spectral type K5V to M5V that is about 0.8 times as massive as the Sun.[18] Around 50 AU distant from Gamma Corvi A, it is estimated to complete an orbit in 158 years.[17] Delta Corvi, traditionally called Algorab, is a double star divisible in small amateur telescopes. The primary is a blue-white star of magnitude 2.9, around 87 light-years from Earth.[16] An enigmatic star around 2.7 times as massive as the Sun, it is more luminous (65-70 times that of the Sun) than its should be for its surface temperature of 10,400 K, and hence is either a 3.2 million year-old very young pre-main sequence star that has not settled down to a stable main sequence life stage, or a 260 million year-old star that has begun to exhaust its core hydrogen and expand, cool and shine more brightly as it moves away from the main sequence. Its spectral type is given as A0IV, corresponding with the latter scenario.[19] Warm circumstellar dust—by definition part of its inner stellar system—has been detected around Delta Corvi A.[20] Delta Corvi B is an orange dwarf star of magnitude 8.51 and spectral class K, also surrounded by circumstellar dust. A post T-tauri star, it is at least 650 AU distant from its brighter companion and takes at least 9400 years to complete an orbit.[21] Delta Corvi's common name means "the raven".[2] It is one of two stars marking the right wing.[10]

Marks the raven's breast is Beta Corvi,[10] a star of magnitude 2.7 located 146 ± 1 light-years from Earth.[16] Roughly 206 million years old and 3.7 ± 1 times as massive as the Sun, it has exhausted its core hydrogen and expanded and cooled to a surface temperature of around 5,100 K and is now a yellow bright giant star of spectral type G5II.[22] It likely spent most of its existence as a blue-white main sequence star of spectral type B7V.[23] Bearing the proper name of Minkar and marking the raven's nostril is Epsilon Corvi, located some 318 ± 5 light-years from Earth.[16] It is a red giant of spectral type K2III that is around 54 times the Sun's radius and 930 times its luminosity.[24] Around 4 times as massive as the Sun, it spent much of its life as a main sequence star of spectral type B5V.[25]

Also called Alchiba, Alpha Corvi is a white-hued star of spectral type F1V and magnitude 4.0, 48.7 ± 0.1 light-years from Earth.[16] It exhibits periodic changes in its spectrum over a three-day period, which suggests it is either a spectroscopic binary or (more likely) a pulsating Gamma Doradus-type variable. If the latter is the case, it is estimated to be 1.39 times as massive as the Sun.[26] According to Bayer's atlas, it lies above the bird's beak.[10]

Also marking the raven's right wing is Eta Corvi,[10] a yellow-white main sequence star that is 1.52 times as massive and 4.87 times as luminous as the Sun. It is 59 light-years distant from our Solar System.[27] Two debris disks have been detected orbiting this star, one warm within 3.5 AU and another out at ~150 AU.[28][29] Zeta Corvi marks the raven's neck.[10] It is of apparent magnitude 5.21, separated by 7 arcseconds from the star HR 4691.[30] Located 420 ± 10 light-years distant,[16] it is a blue-white Be star of spectral type B8V, the presence of hydrogen emission lines in its spectrum indicating it has a circumstellar disk. These stars may be an optical double or a true multiple star system, with a separation of at least 50,000 astronomical units and the stars taking 3.5 million years to orbit each other. HR 4691 is itself double, composed of an ageing yellow-orange giant whose spectral type has been calculated at K0 or G3, and an F-type main sequence star.[30]

Struve 1669 is a binary star that is divisible by small amateur telescopes, 280 light-years from Earth. The pair, both white stars, is visible to the naked eye at magnitude 5.2; the primary is of magnitude 5.9 and the secondary is of magnitude 6.0.[2]

31 Crateris (which was originally placed in Crater by Flamsteed) is a 5.26 magnitude star which was once mistaken for a moon of Mercury. It is in reality a remote binary star system with a hot blue-white star of spectral type B1.5V and a companion about which little is known. The two stars orbit each other every 2.9631 days. The primary is possibly a blue straggler of the Hyades group.[31] The primary is around 15.5 times as massive as the Sun and 52262 times as luminous.[32]

VV Corvi is a close spectroscopic binary, its two component stars orbiting each other with a period of 1.46 days.[33] The mass ratio of the two stars is 0.775±0.024.[34] A tertiary companion was discovered during the Two Micron All-Sky Survey.[35]

Close to Gamma Corvi and visible in the same binocular field is R Corvi, a long period (Mira) variable star.[36] TT Corvi is a Semiregular variable red giant of spectral type M3III and apparent magnitude 6.48 around 923 light years distant.[37] It is around 993 times as luminous as of the Sun.[38] TU Corvi is a Delta Scuti variable—a class of short period (six hours at most) pulsating stars that have been used as standard candles and as subjects to study astroseismology.[39] It varies by 0.025 of a magnitude around apparent magnitude 6.53 over 59 minutes.[40]

Notable deep-sky objects

Corvus contains no Messier objects. It has several galaxies and a planetary nebular observable with amateur telescopes.[41] The center of Corvus is home to a planetary nebula NGC 4361.[41] The nebula itself resembles a small elliptical galaxy and has a magnitude of 10.3, but the magnitude 13 star at its centre gives away its true nature.[36]

The NGC 4038 Group is a group of galaxies across Corvus and Crater. The group may contain between 13 and 27 galaxies. The best-known member is the Antennae peculiar galaxy, located 0.25 north of 31 Crateris.[42] It consists of two interacting galaxies—NGC 4038 and 4039—that appear to have a heart shape as seen from Earth. The name originates from the huge tidal tails that come off the ends of the two galaxies, formed because of the spiral galaxies' original rotation. Both original galaxies were spiral galaxies and are now experiencing extensive star formation due to the interaction of gas clouds. The galaxies are 45 million light-years from Earth and each has multiple ultraluminous X-ray sources, the source of which is unknown. Astronomers theorize that they may be a rare type of x-ray emitting binary stars or intermediate-mass black holes.[43] The Antennae galaxies appear in a telescope at the 10th magnitude.[2] NGC 4027 is another member of the group, notable for its extended spiral arm, probably due to a past collision. Known as the Ringtail Galaxy, it lies close to 31 Crateris.[42] NGC 4361 is an elliptical galaxy.

Popular culture

In Action Comics #14 (January 2013), which was published 7 November 2012, Neil Degrasse Tyson appears in the story, in which he determines that Superman's home planet, Krypton, orbited the red dwarf LHS 2520 in the constellation Corvus, 27.1 light-years from Earth. Tyson assisted DC Comics in selecting a real-life star that would be an appropriate parent star to Krypton, and picked the star in Corvus,[44][45] and which is the mascot of Superman's high school, the Smallville Crows.[46]

See also

Corvus (Chinese astronomy)

Notes

  1. ↑ While parts of the constellation technically rise above the horizon to observers between the 65°N and 78°N, stars within a few degrees of the horizon are to all intents and purposes unobservable.[7]
  2. ↑ Objects of magnitude 6.5 are among the faintest visible to the unaided eye in suburban-rural transition night skies.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Babylonian Star-lore by Gavin White, Solaria Pubs, 2008, page 166ff
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ridpath & Tirion 2001, pp. 128-130.
  3. ↑ (Chinese) AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 7 月 22 日
  4. ↑ Ridpath, Ian. "Corvus and Crater". Star Tales. self-published. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Allen, Richard Hinckley, (1963): Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, New York, Dover Publications, p. 182.
  6. ↑ Makemson, Maud Worcester (1941). The Morning Star Rises: an account of Polynesian astronomy. Yale University Press.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Ian Ridpath. "Constellations: Andromeda–Indus". Star Tales. self-published. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  8. ↑ Russell, Henry Norris (1922). "The New International Symbols for the Constellations". Popular Astronomy 30: 469. Bibcode:1922PA.....30..469R.
  9. ↑ "Corvus, Constellation Boundary". The Constellations (International Astronomical Union). Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wagman, Morton (2003). Lost Stars: Lost, Missing and Troublesome Stars from the Catalogues of Johannes Bayer, Nicholas Louis de Lacaille, John Flamsteed, and Sundry Others. Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company. pp. 119, 387, 390–91, 506. ISBN 978-0-939923-78-6.
  11. ↑ Bortle, John E. (February 2001). "The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale". Sky & Telescope. Sky Publishing Corporation. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Nickel, J., (1999): Lift Up Your Eyes on High: Understanding the Stars, Christian Liberty Press, p. 53.
  13. ↑ Bakich, M. E., (1995): The Cambridge Guide to the Constellations, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 21,22.
  14. ↑ Mullaney, J., (2007): The Herschel objects and how to observe them <Astronomers' Observing Guides>, Springer, p. 39.
  15. 1 2 3 Kaler, James B. (Jim) (2004), "Gienah Corvi", Stars (University of Illinois), retrieved 18 March 2015
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 van Leeuwen, F. (2007). "Validation of the New Hipparcos Reduction". Astronomy and Astrophysics 474 (2): 653–64. arXiv:0708.1752. Bibcode:2007A&A...474..653V. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078357.
  17. 1 2 3 Janson, Markus; Bonavita, Mariangela; Klahr, Hubert; Lafrenière, David; Jayawardhana, Ray; Zinnecker, Hans (2011). "High-contrast Imaging Search for Planets and Brown Dwarfs around the Most Massive Stars in the Solar Neighborhood". The Astrophysical Journal 736 (2): 89. arXiv:1105.2577. Bibcode:2011ApJ...736...89J. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/736/2/89.
  18. ↑ Roberts, Lewis C., Jr.; Turner, Nils H.; ten Brummelaar, Theo A. (February 2007). "Adaptive Optics Photometry and Astrometry of Binary Stars. II. A Multiplicity Survey of B Stars". The Astronomical Journal 133 (2): 545–552. Bibcode:2007AJ....133..545R. doi:10.1086/510335.
  19. ↑ Montesinos, B.; Eiroa, C.; Mora, A.; Merín, B. (2009). "Parameters of Herbig Ae/Be and Vega-type stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics 495 (3): 901–17. arXiv:0811.3557. Bibcode:2009A&A...495..901M. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:200810623.
  20. ↑ Ertel, S.; Absil, O.; Defrère, D.; Le Bouquin, J.-B.; Augereau, J.-C.; Marion, L.; Blind, N.; Bonsor, A.; Bryden, G.; Lebreton, J.; Milli, J. (2014). "A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris-disk stars. IV. An unbiased sample of 92 southern stars observed in H band with VLTI/PIONIER". Astronomy & Astrophysics 570: 20. arXiv:1409.6143. Bibcode:2014A&A...570A.128E. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201424438. A128.
  21. ↑ Kaler, James B. (Jim) (2000), "Algorab", Stars (University of Illinois), retrieved 25 July 2015
  22. ↑ Lyubimkov, Leonid S.; Lambert, David L.; Rostopchin, Sergey I.; Rachkovskaya, Tamara M.; Poklad, Dmitry B. (February 2010). "Accurate fundamental parameters for A-, F- and G-type Supergiants in the solar neighbourhood". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 402 (2): 1369–1379. arXiv:0911.1335. Bibcode:2010MNRAS.402.1369L. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15979.x.
  23. ↑ Kaler, James B. (Jim), "Kraz", Stars (University of Illinois), retrieved 25 July 2015
  24. ↑ Aurière, M.; Konstantinova-Antova, R.; Charbonnel, C.; Wade, G. A.; Tsvetkova, S.; Petit, P.; Dintrans, B.; Drake, N. A.; Decressin, T.; Lagarde, N.; Donati, J.-F.; Roudier, T.; Lignières, F.; Schröder, K.-P.; Landstreet, J. D.; Lèbre, A.; Weiss, W. W.; Zahn, J.-P. (2015). "The magnetic fields at the surface of active single G-K giants". Astronomy & Astrophysics 574: 30. arXiv:1411.6230. Bibcode:2015A&A...574A..90A. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201424579. A90.
  25. ↑ Kaler, James B. (Jim), "Minkar", Stars (University of Illinois), retrieved 12 July 2015
  26. ↑ Fuhrmann, K.; Chini, R. (2012). "Multiplicity among F-type Stars". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement 203 (2): 20. Bibcode:2012ApJS..203...30F. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/203/2/30. 30.
  27. ↑ Pawellek, Nicole; Krivov, Alexander V.; Marshall, Jonathan P.; Montesinos, Benjamin; Ábrahám, Péter; Moór, Attila; Bryden, Geoffrey; Eiroa, Carlos (2014). "Disk Radii and Grain Sizes in Herschel-resolved Debris Disks". The Astrophysical Journal 792 (1): 19. arXiv:1407.4579. Bibcode:2014ApJ...792...65P. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/792/1/65. 65.
  28. ↑ Smith, R.; et al. (2008). "The nature of mid-infrared excesses from hot dust around Sun-like stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics 485 (3): 897. arXiv:0804.4580. Bibcode:2008A&A...485..897S. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078719.
  29. ↑ Wyatt, M. C. (2005). "Submillimeter Images of a Dusty Kuiper Belt around η Corvi". The Astrophysical Journal 620 (1): 492–500. arXiv:astro-ph/0411061. Bibcode:2005ApJ...620..492W. doi:10.1086/426929.
  30. 1 2 Kaler, James B. (Jim) (26 April 2013), "Zeta Corvi", Stars (University of Illinois), retrieved 18 March 2015
  31. ↑ Eggleton, P. P.; Tokovinin, A. A. (September 2008), "A catalogue of multiplicity among bright stellar systems", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 389 (2): 869–879, arXiv:0806.2878, Bibcode:2008MNRAS.389..869E, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13596.x.
  32. ↑ Hohle, M. M.; Neuhäuser, R.; Schutz, B. F. (April 2010), "Masses and luminosities of O- and B-type stars and red supergiants", Astronomische Nachrichten 331 (4): 349, arXiv:1003.2335, Bibcode:2010AN....331..349H, doi:10.1002/asna.200911355
  33. ↑ Batten, A. H. (1967). "Sixth catalogue of the orbital elements of spectroscopic binary systems". Publications of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria 13: 119–251. Bibcode:1967PDAO...13..119B.
  34. ↑ Lucy, L. B.; Ricco, E. (March 1979). "The significance of binaries with nearly identical components". Astronomical Journal 84: 401–412. Bibcode:1979AJ.....84..401L. doi:10.1086/112434.
  35. ↑ Tokovinin, A.; Thomas, S.; Sterzik, M.; Udry, S. (2008). "Tertiary companions to close spectroscopic binaries". Multiple Stars Across the H-R Diagram, ESO Astrophysics Symposia. Berlin Heidelberg. p. 129. arXiv:astro-ph/0601518. ISBN 978-3-540-74744-4.
  36. 1 2 Garfinkle, Robert A. (1997). Star-Hopping: Your Visa to Viewing the Universe. Cambridge University Press. p. 108. ISBN 0-521-59889-3.
  37. ↑ Tabur, V.; Bedding, T. R. (2009). "Long-term photometry and periods for 261 nearby pulsating M giants". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 400 (4): 1945–61. arXiv:0908.3228. Bibcode:2009MNRAS.400.1945T. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15588.x.
  38. ↑ McDonald, I.; Zijlstra, A. A.; Boyer, M. L. (2012). "Fundamental Parameters and Infrared Excesses of Hipparcos Stars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 427 (1): 343–57. arXiv:1208.2037. Bibcode:2012MNRAS.427..343M. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21873.x.
  39. ↑ Templeton, Matthew (16 July 2010). "Delta Scuti and the Delta Scuti Variables". Variable Star of the Season. AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers). Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  40. ↑ Watson, Christopher (4 January 2010). "TU Corvi". The International Variable Star Index. American Association of Variable Star Observers. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  41. 1 2 Luginbuhl, Christian B.; Skiff, Brian A. (1998). Observing Handbook and Catalogue of Deep-Sky Objects. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780521625562.
  42. 1 2 O'Meara, Stephen James (2002). The Caldwell Objects. Cambridge University Press. pp. 240–43. ISBN 978-0-521-82796-6.
  43. ↑ Wilkins, Jamie; Dunn, Robert (2006). 300 Astronomical Objects: A Visual Reference to the Universe. Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books. ISBN 978-1-55407-175-3.
  44. ↑ Wall, Mike (7 November 2012). "Superman's Home Planet Krypton 'Found'". Scientific American.
  45. ↑ Potter, Ned (5 November 2012). "Superman Home: Planet Krypton 'Found' in Sky". abc news website. ABC News Internet Ventures. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  46. ↑ Gregorian, Dareh (5 November 2012). "NYER is 'super' smart". New York Post. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
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