Gienah,
usually called Gamma Corvi, is the brightest star in the small
constellation of Corvus The Crow. Corvus is a small rectangular
constellation that resembles a crow only by the furthest stretch of the
imagination --- and the ancient Babylonians, who called this
constellation "The Raven" were imaginative. The ancient Chinese called
it "The Spanker," naming it for the aft sail on a junk (and it more
resembles a spanker than any bird). Nonetheless, Corvus stuck in
European legend. Medieval monks claimed that the constellation Argo was
in reality Noah's Ark, and that two constellations, Corvus and Columba
The Dove, were the birds that Noah had sent aloft after the Deluge.
"Gienah" is a corrupted contraction of the Arabic name al-janāħ al-ghirāb al-yaman, meaning "the right wing of the crow" (it is actually the left wing) and since astronomers often can't agree on the pronunciation of "Gienah", "Gamma Corvi" is more often used than its everyday name. The usual pronunciation is something like "Jenna."
Another oddity is that this brightest star in the constellation is named "Gamma" instead of "Alpha" Corvi. Yet another is that there are several Gienahs in the sky --- all meaning "wing" and connected to avian constellations like The Crow and The Dove and The Swan). As there are multiple tails (deneb) there are multiple wings (gienah) in our heavens.
Gienah is a Second Magnitude star, and a fairly dim one at that. However, there are no other brighter stars in its vicinity, making it helpful for celestial navigators. It is the twenty ninth star in the Nautical Almanac.
It is one of the 15 Behenian stars with its own astrological implications. Gienah is said to protect men from madness and demons. It is usually partnered with the star Algorab in Behenian lore.
Gienah is a blue-white giant with a high metals content so that it sparkles. The metals in the star's solar wind cause a diffusion cloud that can be asily seen in the photograph. It is actually 355 times as bright as our Sun. Gienah is only 160 million years old. It is four times the mass of the Sun, and three times the radius, with a temperature of 22,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gienah is a binary star and its companion, Gamma Corvi Beta, is about eight tenths the size of the Sun, and it circles Gamma Corvi Alpha at 4.5 billion miles, though little else is known about it. The Gienah star system is 155 light years from Earth.
"Gienah" is a corrupted contraction of the Arabic name al-janāħ al-ghirāb al-yaman, meaning "the right wing of the crow" (it is actually the left wing) and since astronomers often can't agree on the pronunciation of "Gienah", "Gamma Corvi" is more often used than its everyday name. The usual pronunciation is something like "Jenna."
Another oddity is that this brightest star in the constellation is named "Gamma" instead of "Alpha" Corvi. Yet another is that there are several Gienahs in the sky --- all meaning "wing" and connected to avian constellations like The Crow and The Dove and The Swan). As there are multiple tails (deneb) there are multiple wings (gienah) in our heavens.
Gienah is a Second Magnitude star, and a fairly dim one at that. However, there are no other brighter stars in its vicinity, making it helpful for celestial navigators. It is the twenty ninth star in the Nautical Almanac.
It is one of the 15 Behenian stars with its own astrological implications. Gienah is said to protect men from madness and demons. It is usually partnered with the star Algorab in Behenian lore.
Gienah is a blue-white giant with a high metals content so that it sparkles. The metals in the star's solar wind cause a diffusion cloud that can be asily seen in the photograph. It is actually 355 times as bright as our Sun. Gienah is only 160 million years old. It is four times the mass of the Sun, and three times the radius, with a temperature of 22,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gienah is a binary star and its companion, Gamma Corvi Beta, is about eight tenths the size of the Sun, and it circles Gamma Corvi Alpha at 4.5 billion miles, though little else is known about it. The Gienah star system is 155 light years from Earth.
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