Sagittarius was characterized in mythology as being unrestrained as wild or untamed horses despite their human head, arms, and torso. Image: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K.Baganoff et al. The Omega Nebula is an emission nebula in Sagittarius. The nebula is in fact a combination of an emission nebula (the lower part), a reflection nebula (the upper part) and an open cluster. Peering through the thick dust clouds of our galaxys central parts (the bulge) with an amazing amount of detail, a team of astronomers has revealed an unusual mix of stars in the stellar grouping known as Terzan 5. Sagittarius is a masculine sign and ruled by Jupiter, and is balanced and complemented by the opposite sign of Gemini, ruled by Mercury. Edward Emerson Barnard catalogued it as IC 4690 in August 1905. Hurt, who led the team that confirmed the discovery. Sagittarius is an astrological sign transitted by the Sun from approximately November 23rd to December 22nd. In this image of ESO 456-67, it is possible to see the various layers of material expelled by the central star. The supernova remnant Sagittarius A East is about 25 light years wide and appears to have originated in an event that occurred between 35,000 and 100,000 years ago. The Terebellum is a quadrilateral formed by four fourth magnitude stars in Sagittarius, all within two degrees of each other: Omega Sagittarii, 59 Sagittarii, 60 Sagittarii and 62 Sagittarii. This is the Sagittarius horoscope symbol and the character that represents this zodiac sign. The small cluster is only 1 arc minute in diameter. As understood through the centaur, the Sagittarius sign is as optimistic as the archer but . This dazzling image shows the globular cluster Messier 69, or M69 for short, as viewed through the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. A stars final moments are captured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Messier 75 is a globular star cluster about 67,500 light years from Earth. It does not really have the structure of a spiral. The Sagittarius Cluster is one of the brightest globular star clusters in the sky. Image: ESO, 2013. Located 25,000 light years from Earth, the cluster lies only about 100 light years from the Galactic centre. Chiron was immortal, so he could not die. The stars and clusters in the Sagittarius Star Cloud are part of the Sagittarius or Sagittarius-Carina spiral arms of the Milky Way. The bright star in the centre of this image is not the star of this show. The object is actually a small white dwarf star undergoing a helium flash one of only a handful of examples of such an event ever witnessed by astronomers. Sagittarius is the 15th largest constellation in the sky. Omega Nebula (Messier 17), image: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (CC BY-SA 4.0). The next occultation by a planet (Venus) will take place in our lifetime: on February 17, 2035. NGC 6544 is a globular cluster located less than a degree southeast of the Lagoon Nebula. There are no meteor showers associated with the constellation. The most notable of these regions, the radio-emitting nebula G10.3-0.3, is home to the cluster 1806-20, which contains an O-type supergiant, two blue hypergiants, three Wolf-Rayet stars, the luminous blue variable LBV 1806-20 and the magnetar SGR 1806-20. The nebula is an H II region originally discovered by the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys De Chseaux in 1745. However, the ancient Greeks had a great deal of respect for the horse, and so were reluctant to make the centaurs entirely bad. The star was discovered in February 1996 by Yukio Sakurai, an amateur astronomer. Nir al Beldat was later translated into Latin as Lucida Oppidi, which means the brightest of the town.. It has a radius 11 times solar and is 52 times more luminous than the Sun. While the star is far enough for the supernova itself to be harmless, a long duration gamma-ray burst (LGRB) pointed in our direction could certainly do serious damage to our ozone layer. On 27 December, 2004, the brightest gamma ray burst ever detected outside the solar system was recorded emanating from the star, with an absolute magnitude of about -29. Nunki has a faint (magnitude 9.5) companion about 5.2 arc minutes away. It is easy to find because it lies on the Milky Way and its brightest stars form an asterism known as the Teapot. It lies close to the star Zeta Sagittarii. 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. Sagittarius constellation map by IAU and Sky&Telescope magazine. Rho Sagittarii is a binary star with a subgiant belonging to the spectral class F0 as the primary component and a K0 type giant as the companion, separated by 0.46 from the primary. In Greek mythology, Sagittarius is Chiron, a centaur who was a teacher to gods and heroes, like Achilles. Reddish nebulae in this image reveal regions of active star formation, wherein young, hot stars heat up nearby gas clouds. Evidence shows that Terzan 7 used to belong to a small galaxy called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, a mini-galaxy discovered in 1994. Polis is about 3,912 light years distant from Earth. Before being assigned to Sagittarius, the star system was known as Beta Telescopii. LBV 1806-20, a candidate luminous blue variable (LBV) is one of the most luminous stars in our galaxy. It is approximately 77.3 light years distant. The central region of the Trifid Nebula (M20). Normally, the white dwarf stage is the last in the life cycle of a low-mass star. Sagittarius is Latin for "archer," and since ancient times the constellation has been represented as a creature wielding a bow and arrow. The stars traditional name, Kaus Australis, comes from the Arabic word for bow (qaws) and the Latin word for southern (australis). It's easy to see why the myths behind Centaurus and Sagittarius often get confused. Spanning an area of 150 light years across, Sagittarius B is one of the largest molecular clouds in our galaxy and the single largest one in the vicinity of the galaxys core. SAGITTARIUS, The Archer, represents a centaur - half-man, half-horse, descended from Ixion, the man who dared to lust after Hera, wife of Zeus. It is one of the constellations of the zodiac. 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. Sagittarius, the half human and half horse, is the centaur of mythology, the learned healer whose higher intelligence forms a bridge between Earth and Heaven. The nearest star is Ross 154 (V1216 Sagittarii, spectral class M3.5V), located at a distance of only 9.69 light years from Earth. Alpha Sagittarii is a blue dwarf belonging to the spectral class B8V. The nebula contains an open cluster of 35 hot young stars which illuminate its gases. Another Greek myth connects Sagittarius with Crotus, the son of Pan, the goat-god, and Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses. NGC 6624 contains six confirmed pulsars and a low-mass X-ray binary, designated 4U 1820-30, with an orbital period of only 11.5 minutes. His name was Crotus, and he was put into the sky by the god Zeus so that everyone could see how archery worked. At the centre of the Lagoon Nebula, there is a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (not the same object as the famous Hourglass Nebula, which is located in the constellation Musca). The last occultation occurred on September 3, 423. It contains areas of massive H II emission, large clouds of partly ionized gas which show evidence of recent star forming activity. Eratosthenes associated it with Crotus, a mythical creature with two feet and a satyrs tail, who was the nurse to the nine Muses, daughters of Zeus. It lies at a distance of 5,500 light years from Earth. In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of the compact centre of Messier 70, a globular cluster. The star HD 169830 (F9V) is orbited by two Jupiter-like planets, discovered in 2000 and 2013. It seems that this cluster has already been kidnapped from its former home and now is part of our own galaxy. 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. M54 is believed to belong to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy. It is located about 18,000 light years away from Earth in the Sagittarius constellation. Sagittarius constellation, Baades Window and the Teapot, photo: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay (STScI) and A. Fujii. Each zodiac sign has a special symbol, or glyph, that's associated with the mythology behind it. It has an absolute magnitude of -11 and a luminosity about 2 million times that of the Sun. Mythology And Facts About The Idealistic Sagittarius The birthday of a Sagittarius-born will always fall between November 22nd and December 21st. Sagittarius A consists of the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East, the spiral structure Sagittarius A West, and a bright radio source located at the centre of the spiral, Sagittarius A*. The constellations symbol is . The cluster has an apparent diameter of 7 arc minutes and a visual magnitude of 9.47. The nebula was discovered by Edward Charles Pickering on July 15, 1882. The most well-known myth is that of Chiron, the centaur and revered teacher of many Greek heroes. First detected in 1999, V4641 Sgr is a variable X-ray binary system once considered to be the closest black hole to Earth, at a distance of about 1,600 light years. 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. Image: NASA, ESA, and A. Sarajedini (University of Florida) Acknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine. Individuals born between November 22 and December 21 are known to be Sagittarius individuals. Crotus and Chiron were both exceptions to their races, being instead gifted in the arts and sciences and were knowledgeable and polite to humans. Beta-2 Sagittarii, or Arkab Posterior (because it trails after Beta-1), is a giant star belonging to the spectral type F2III. Soft gamma repeaters (SGR) are objects that emit enormous bursts of gamma-rays and X-rays at irregular intervals. Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, acknowledgement: M. Novak. A Hubble Space Telescope photo of the planetary nebula Henize 3-1475. It represents the archer. The Quintuplet Cluster is another dense open cluster located in same region as the Arches Cluster, about 26,000 light years from Earth and 100 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. 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. They also look a lot alike. It has a radius of 0.95 arc minutes. The cluster has a diameter of 10 arc minutes and an apparent magnitude of 4.6. It is a blue variable star that is about four million times as luminous as our Sun and 120-200 times as massive. In honor of Chiron's sacrifice, Zeus created the constellation Sagittarius in his likeness. The cluster is located at a distance of 75,700 light years from Earth. Since it lies very close to the ecliptic, Lambda Sagittarii is occasionally occulted by the Moon and, more rarely, by planets. Other stars with confirmed exoplanets include HD 171238 (G8 V), HD 179949 (F8 V), HD 181720 (G1V), HD 187085 (G0V), WASP-67 (K0V), MOA-2011-BLG-293L (M1.5V), MOA-2009-BLG-319L (K8V), HD 181342 (K0III), HD 180902 (K0III/IV), OGLE-TR-56 (G), OGLE-2003-BLG-235L (K5), OGLE-2005-BLG-169L (M), MOA-2007-BLG-192L, and MOA-2007-BLG-400L (M3V). It is believed to be associated with the close binary. Pi Sagittarii is a triple star system approximately 440 light years distant, with an apparent magnitude of 2.88. The star is classified as an irregular variable. Satyrs have human heads and torsos with goat legs (and sometimes horns). Sagittarius symbolism and mythology. Its name means divided into three lobes. Each appears in a different hue red, orange, yellow, and green-tinted bands of gas are visible, with clear patches of space at the heart of the nebula. Messier 54 is a dense globular cluster with an apparent magnitude of 8.37, approximately 87,400 light years distant and about 150 light years across. Zeta Sagittarii consists of a class A2 giant star with an apparent magnitude of 3.26 and an A4 type subgiant star with an apparent magnitude of 3.37. This Chandra image of Sgr A* and the surrounding region was made from a 164 hours of observation time over a two-week period. It is elliptical in shape and about 32 arc minutes across in size. Kaus Australis is the brightest star in the constellation Sagittarius and the 36th brightest star in the sky. 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. Studying the makeup of stars in globular clusters like M69 has helped astronomers trace back the evolution of the cosmos. NGC 6723 is a globular star cluster in Sagittarius, near the border with Corona Australis. The cluster is about 34 light years in radius, has an apparent magnitude of 9.06 and is approximately 29,300 light years distant. The Arches Cluster is the densest open cluster known in the Milky Way. Greek mythology held that both satyrs and centaurs were mostly huge, boorish jerks, but Crotus and Chiron were the exceptions: intelligent, kind, sensitive, and sympathetic to humans. It is a dramatic and short-lived series of events, and Sakurais Object has allowed astronomers a very rare opportunity to study the events in real time. The two stars are separated by 13.4 astronomical units (AU). It lies at an estimated distance of 50,000 light years from Earth on the other side of our galaxy. It is also catalogued as ESO 456-70. It is one of only four star systems known to be hydrogen-deficient, which makes it difficult to classify U Sgr. The archer's best-known identity was that of a centaur, a beast with the upper body of a man and the lower body, hind legs, and tail of a horse. The Pistol Star is one of the most luminous stars known. Barnard, who discovered it in 1881 using a six-inch refractor telescope. Messier 69 is a globular cluster. Delta Sagittarii has a radius 62 times solar, a mass about five times solar, and is 1180 times more luminous than the Sun. Although the centaur was most common in Greek mythology . Most interpretations conclude that the mythology of Sagittarius refers to the centaurChiron, who was accidentally shot by Hercules (Greek mythology) with a poison arrow. This beautiful image features the globular star cluster M75. Most stories come to the conclusion that the myth of the constellation Sagittarius is the tale of the centaur Chiron. The cluster was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. The cluster is one of six globulars discovered by the French-Armenian astronomer Agop Terzan in 1968. Another aspect of M69 lends itself to the bejewelled metaphor: As globular clusters go, M69 is one of the most metal-rich on record. The sign, which is represented by the archer's arrow, is ruled by Jupiter. The star has a luminosity 3,300 times that of the Sun and about seven solar masses. The glyph is the upward-pointing arrow of the archer, ready to be fired into the future. Crotus and Chiron share a lot in common. NGC 6565 is a planetary nebula, a cloud of gas expelled by a central star in its final stages, located about 14,000 light years away in Sagittarius. It contains very few variable stars. Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy (SagDIG), image: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), acknowledgement: Y. Momany (University of Padua). Phi Sagittarii is a B8 class giant approximately 231 light years from Earth. The numbers 1806-20 indicate its position in the sky (right ascension and declination). Image: ESO. In total, there are about 400,000 stars in the globular cluster. 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. The star cannot be observed in visual bands because less than a billionth of its light in the visible spectrum reaches us, which translates to about 35th visual magnitude. It is the densest concentration of stars that can be seen using binoculars; about a thousand stars are visible within a single field of view.