named for the triangular pattern of their three brightest stars. The
constellations are in the northern and the far southern celestial
hemispheres respectively. Triangulum was known to the ancient
Babylonians and Greeks, and was one of the 48 constellations listed by
the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. It contains several galaxies, the
brightest and nearest of which is the Triangulum Galaxy (pictured)—a
member of the Local Group. It also contains 3C 48, the first quasar
ever observed. At magnitude 3.00, the white giant star Beta Trianguli is
the brightest star in Triangulum. Three stars in the constellation have
been found to have planets. Triangulum Australe was first depicted as
Triangulus Antarcticus by Petrus Plancius in 1589 and was given its
current name by Johann Bayer in 1603. Its brightest star is Alpha
Trianguli Australis, the 42nd-brightest star in the night sky. At
magnitude 1.91, it is an orange giant that is 5500 times more luminous
than, and 130 times as wide as, our Sun. One star system in Triangulum
Australe has a confirmed planet.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulum_Australe>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
240:
Shapur I was crowned shahanshah ("king of kings") of the
Sasanian Empire, the last Iranian empire before the rise of Islam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapur_I>
1776:
The fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress passed the
Halifax Resolves, the first official action in the American colonies
calling for independence from Britain during the American Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Resolves>
1831:
The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England,
collapsed, reportedly owing to a mechanical resonance induced by troops
marching over the bridge in step.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge>
1961:
Aboard Vostok 3KA-3, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the
first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108
minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin>
1994:
Husband-and-wife law partners Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel
posted the first massive commercial Usenet spam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Canter_and_Martha_Siegel>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ungulate:
Having hooves.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ungulate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have very strongly this feeling... that our everyday life is at
one and the same time banal, overfamiliar, platitudinous and yet
mysterious and extraordinary.
--Bryan Magee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bryan_Magee>
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