hemisphere's summer sky and northern hemisphere's winter sky. In the
second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is
counted among the 88 modern constellations. Along with Canis Minor
(lesser dog), it is commonly represented as following the constellation
of Orion the Hunter through the skies. The Milky Way passes through
Canis Major. Several open clusters lie within its borders, including
M41, which covers an area around the same size as the full moon. Sirius,
also called the dog star, is the brightest star in the night sky, and
one of the closest stars to Earth. The other bright stars in the
constellation are much farther away but very luminous. At magnitude 1.5,
Epsilon Canis Majoris (Adhara) appears as the second brightest star of
the constellation and the brightest source of extreme ultraviolet
radiation in the night sky. Next in brightness are the yellow-white
supergiant Delta (Wezen) at 1.8, the blue-white giant Beta (Mirzam) at
2.0, and the blue-white supergiant Eta (Aludra) at 2.4. The red
hypergiant VY Canis Majoris is one of the largest stars known, while the
neutron star RX J0720.4-3125 has a radius of a mere 5 km.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canis_Major>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1798:
After having been invested as Prince of Wallachia, Constantine
Hangerli arrived in Bucharest to assume the throne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Hangerli>
1847:
American gun inventor Samuel Colt made his first large sale of
his revolvers to the Texas Rangers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Colt>
1912:
The Boy Scout Association was incorporated throughout the then
British Empire by royal charter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scout_Association>
1951:
Korean War: Chinese and North Korean troops captured Seoul.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Seoul>
2004:
Spirit (artist's impression pictured), the first of two rovers
of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, landed successfully on Mars at
04:35 Ground UTC.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_(rover)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
swage:
A tool, used by blacksmiths and other metalworkers, for cold shaping of
a metal item.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swage>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the
multiplicity and confusion of things.
--Isaac Newton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton>
_______________________________________________
Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list.
To unsubscribe, visit:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l
Questions or comments? Contact dal-feedback@wikimedia.org