Theta
Centauri is the thirty-sixth star in the Nautical Almanac. It is also
known as "Menkent" a portmanteau contraction word from Arabic and Greek
meaning "The Shoulder of The Centaur," which describes its position in
the constellation Centaurus.
A second magnitude star, Menkent is approximately 60 light years from Earth. It is also 60 times as bright as our Sun, and has a radius ten times that of the Sun's. It is an orange star (between yellow and red) meaning that it is in a transitional phase between its Main Sequence and the exhaustion of its hydrogen as a red giant. As such, it is cooler than our yellow Sun, being only 8200 degrees Fahrenheit. It is 10,900,000,000 years old, making it 2/3rds of the age of the known universe.
Menkent is part of a multistar system of 3-5 members. However, little is known of Menkent's companions.
All constellations have what are known as "Deep Sky Objects" within them --- Nebulae, quasars, pulsars, and galaxies, among other objects. Very near Menkent is the Galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) which lies about 16 million light years (96,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles) from Earth. Centaurus A is classified amusingly as a "Hamburger Galaxy." It was discovered by the first radio telescopes in the 1950s as a powerful emitter of electromagnetic waves. It was first visualized by the Chandra X-Ray Telescope, and appears to be a spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way that is devouring a barred galaxy.
A second magnitude star, Menkent is approximately 60 light years from Earth. It is also 60 times as bright as our Sun, and has a radius ten times that of the Sun's. It is an orange star (between yellow and red) meaning that it is in a transitional phase between its Main Sequence and the exhaustion of its hydrogen as a red giant. As such, it is cooler than our yellow Sun, being only 8200 degrees Fahrenheit. It is 10,900,000,000 years old, making it 2/3rds of the age of the known universe.
Menkent is part of a multistar system of 3-5 members. However, little is known of Menkent's companions.
All constellations have what are known as "Deep Sky Objects" within them --- Nebulae, quasars, pulsars, and galaxies, among other objects. Very near Menkent is the Galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) which lies about 16 million light years (96,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles) from Earth. Centaurus A is classified amusingly as a "Hamburger Galaxy." It was discovered by the first radio telescopes in the 1950s as a powerful emitter of electromagnetic waves. It was first visualized by the Chandra X-Ray Telescope, and appears to be a spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way that is devouring a barred galaxy.
No comments:
Post a Comment