Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Zayda Avelar
PHYSICS 1040-001
Introduction
Constellation Aquila is located in the northern sky, near the celestial equator. Aquila is the 22
nd
biggest star constellation in the sky, occupying an area of 652 square degrees in the fourth
quadrant of the northern hemisphere (NQ4) (Constellation Guide, 2014). It can be seen at
latitudes between +90 and -75 on the northern hemisphere during July, August and September
(Levy, 2005). The neighboring constellations are Aquarius, Capricornus, Delphinus, Hercules,
Ophiuchus, Sagitta, Sagittarius, Scutum, and Serpens Cauda.
Mythology
There are different stories behind Aquila depending on the culture; for example in the ancient
Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures, constellation Aquila is seen as the shape of a flying
bird. The pattern contains three prominent stars that can be seen to outline the wings of a bird,
but are also the focus of quite different myths in eastern and far eastern cultures. In Indian
mythology the three stars are said to be the footprints of Vishnu, the god who preserves the
universe. In the mythologies of China, Japan and Korea, Altair (which is Aquila's brightest star),
is part of a myth related to another bright star, Vega, in the configuration known as the Summer
Triangle. Altair represents a royal herdsman and Vega represents the Sun king. The herdsman
falls in love with the king's daughter and marries her, but they are banished to opposite sides of a
"river" (the Milky Way) for being so in love that they neglect their duties. They are said to be
able to reunite when birds span the river. The birds associated with the myth are magpies, but
may have been inspired by the two bird-shaped constellations, Aquila and Cygnus, that appear in
this area of the Milky Way. This love story is still celebrated by a Japanese festival.
In Greek and Middle Eastern cultures, the constellation Aquila has been identified with a bird
since the first millennium. The eagle was seen by many ancient cultures as a bird with royal
associations and this link carried over into Greek mythology. The eagle is sometimes identified
as a servant of Zeus, king of the Greek gods. An eagle was the keeper of the thunderbolts which
were Zeus's signature weapon. There are legends of Zeus using the disguise of an eagle, in
seducing Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus. Another legend says he was carrying off the
beautiful youth Ganymede, son of King Tros (of Troy), to serve as cupbearer to the gods. Zeus is
said to have placed the image of an eagle in the sky maybe as a reward for its services, or as a
symbol of his own royalty (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 2013).
Primary Stars
Altair is the brightest star in constellation Aquila and one of the closest naked-eye stars to Earth
at a distance of 17 light-years. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase "al-nasr al-tair", which
means "the flying eagle". To illustrate more simply the 20 brightest stars in this constellation I
am presenting in the next page a table I found in wikipedia.org
Name RA DEC
Visual
Magnitude
Distanc
e in
Light
Years
Spectral
Class
Altair
Alpha Aquilae,
Aquilae
19h 50m 46.68s +08 52 02.6 0.76 17 A7IV-V
Aql
Gamma Aquilae
19h 46m 15.57s +10 36 47.8 2.72 460 K3II
Aql
Zeta Aquilae
19h 05m 24.61s +13 51 49.4 2.99 83 A0Vn
Aql
Theta Aquilae
20h 11m 18.26s 00 49 17.3 3.24 287 B9.5III
Aql
Delta Aquilae
19h 25m 29.75s +03 06 52.5 3.36 50 F0IV
Aql
Lambda Aquilae
19h 06m 14.95s 04 52 56.4 3.43 125 B9Vn
Aql
Beta Aquilae
19h 55m 18.77s +06 24 28.6 3.71 45 G8IVvar
Aql
Eta Aquilae
19h 52m 28.36s +01 00 20.4 3.87 1173 F6Ib-G4Ib
Aql
Epsilon Aquilae
18h 59m 37.39s +15 04 06.5 4.02 154 K2III
12 Aql
19h 01m 40.84s 05 44 20.5 4.02 149 K1IIIvar
71 Aql
20h 38m 20.27s 01 06 18.3 4.31 384 G8III SB
Aql
Iota Aquilae
19h 36m 43.28s 01 17 11.6 4.36 307 B5III
Aql
Mu Aquilae
19h 34m 05.23s +07 22 45.5 4.45 111 K3III
Aql
Nu Aquilae
19h 26m 31.09s +00 20 18.9 4.64 11643 F2Ib
Aql
Xi Aquilae
19h 54m 14.882s +08 27 41.23 4.722 204 G9IIIb
69 Aql
20h 29m 38.96s 02 53 07.7 4.91 191 K2III
70 Aql
20h 36m 43.63s 02 32 59.7 4.91 2203 K5II
Aql
Kappa Aquilae
19h 36m 53.45s 07 01 38.9 4.93 1455 B0.5III
26 Aql
19h 20m 32.84s 05 24 57.1 4.98 154 G8III-IV...
4 Aql
18h 44m 49.93s +02 03 36.3 5.02 472 B9V
Objects of Interest
The following objects were observed in Aquila by Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Manitoba/S.Safi-Harb et al, Optical: DSS, Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech
3C 397 (also known as G41.1-0.3) is a Galactic supernova remnant with an unusual shape.
Researchers think its box-like appearance is produced as the heated remains of the exploded star
-- detected by Chandra in X-rays (purple) in 2013-- runs into cooler gas surrounding it. This
composite of the area around 3C 397 also contains infrared emission from Spitzer (yellow) and
optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey (red, green, and blue).
X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/L.Lopez et al.; Infrared: Palomar; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA
W49B is a supernova remnant, produced by a rare type of explosion. It is about a thousand years
old, as seen from Earth, and is at a distance of about 26,000 light years away. The information
was released on February 13, 2013. Supernova explosions that destroy massive stars are
generally symmetrical, with the stellar material blasting away more or less evenly in all
directions but in the W49B supernova, material near the poles of the doomed rotating star was
ejected at a much higher speed than material emanating from its equator.
The highly distorted supernova remnant shown in this image may contain the most recent black
hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The image combines X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory in blue and green, radio data from the NSF's Very Large Array in pink, and infrared
data from Caltech's Palomar Observatory in yellow.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Hamburg/S.Schrter et al; Optical: NASA/NSF/IPAC-Caltech/UMass/2MASS,
UNC/CTIO/PROMPT; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
CoRoT-2a: Star Blasts Planet with X-rays. CoRoT-2a has a planet in close orbit around it. The
separation between the star and planet is only about 3 percent of the distance between the Earth
and the Sun, causing some exotic effects not seen in our solar system. Release date was
September 13, 2011.
The Chandra observations provide evidence that CoRoT-2a is a very active star, with bright X-
ray emission produced by powerful, turbulent magnetic fields. This magnetic activity is
represented by the prominences and eruptions on the surface of the star in the illustration. Such
strong activity is usually found in much younger stars and may be caused by the proximity of the
planet. The planet may be speeding up the star's rotation, causing its magnetic fields to remain
active longer than expected. Support for this idea comes from observations of a likely companion
star to CoRoT-2a that orbits at a distance about a thousand times greater than the distance
between the Earth and the Sun.
The planet, CoRoT-2b, was discovered by the French Space Agency's Convection, Rotation and
planetary Transits (CoRoT) satellite in 2008. It is located about 880 light years from Earth and
has a mass about 3 time that of Jupiter.
NASA/CXC/GSFC/F.P.Gavriil et al.
Kes 75 is a supernova remnant located almost 20,000 light years away. The explosion of a
massive star created the supernova remnant, along with a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star.
It was observed back in 2006 and the released date was on February 21, 2008.
Chandra observed the pulsar near the time of the bursts and it was much brighter than it had been
in Chandra observations obtained six years earlier. This brightening, and changes in the X-ray
spectrum of the pulsar obtained with Chandra are also consistent with behavior expected for a
magnetar (which is a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field).
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SSC/J. Keohane et al.; Infrared: Caltech/SSC/J.Rho and T. Jarrett
W49B A massive star formed from a dense cloud of dust and gas, shone brightly for a few
million years while spinning off rings of gas and pushing them away to form a nearly empty
cavity around the star. The star then exhausted its nuclear fuel and its core collapsed to form a
black hole. Much of the gas around the black hole was pulled into it, but some, including
material rich in iron and nickel was flung away in oppositely directed jets of gas traveling near
the speed of light. When the jet hit the dense cloud surrounding the star, it flared out and drove a
shock wave into the cloud. This was observed on July 08, 2000.
(Illustration) NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Nova Aquilae is an outburst caused by a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white
dwarf star, it was observed four times from April 2000 through October 2000. In the October
data astronomers detected a dramatic flare of X-rays and cyclical 40-minute pulsations. The
pulsations are thought to come from the contraction and expansion of the outer layers of the
white dwarf, but the cause of the 15 minute X-ray flare remains a mystery.
It is very interesting all the things that can be observed with X-Rays today. All of these object
were taken from Chandra X-Ray observatory.
References
Aquila Constellation. Constellation Guide. Retrieved July 28, 2014, from
http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/aquila-constellation/
Chandra: Photo Album: Constellation Aquila. (2013, December 2). Chandra: Photo Album:
Constellation Aquila. Retrieved July 28, 2014, from
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/constellations/aquila.html
Chandra X-Ray Observatory. NASA. Retrieved July 28, 2014, from
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/unusual-supernova-
remnant.html#.U9bINfldV8E
Levy, D. H. (2005). July, August, September. David Levy's guide to variable stars (2nd Ed.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
List of stars in Aquila. (2014, May 7). Wikipedia. Retrieved July 28, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_Aquila