Raven - the constellation of the Southern Hemisphere sky.It takes quite a small area and significantly inferior to the brightness of some of its neighbors.The stars that make up this heavenly figure nevertheless attracted the attention of specialists.In addition, it houses a pair of interacting galaxies, scientists talked a lot about the evolution of these structures.
position in the sky
Constellation Raven is easiest to find, by defining pre-placement of its bright neighbor of the Virgin.In the south-west of it is a quadrilateral irregular shape formed by the most prominent luminaries of this heavenly figure.
best time to observe the constellation - from March to April.Since Raven refers to the southern celestial figures, it is low above the horizon in our country.One can see the constellation in the middle and southern part of Russia.
Legendary
Raven - a constellation which is found in the pages of "Almagest" of Ptolemy, one of the first astronomical catalogs (II century AD).All the heavenly figures appearing in it are called the Ancients.
with crows connected many legends in the mythology of various peoples.This bird has always been associated with magic and sorcery.The appearance of the constellations in the sky ancient Greeks associated with the sun god Apollo.According to legend, the Raven was his assistant, a beautiful bird with a white plumage, who was able to speak.According to one version, he had to bring God to lead on how to live his wife and son Asclepius, Coronis, is busy with the affairs of Apollo on Mount Olympus.One day Crow spoke about the carelessness of the girl prefers to communicate with friends, and not follow the child.Apollo Enraged returned home and stabbed his wife boom.However, it appeared that the bird had misinterpreted what he saw, and Coronis was a wonderful mother.Saddened Apollo cursed messenger: he and all his descendants forever covered with black feathers and speechless.As a reminder to future generations about the dangers of reckless behavior and falsehood God has placed in the sky the constellation Raven.
heavenly light pattern
a crow under good conditions it is possible without the aid of a telescope or binoculars to distinguish up to thirty stars.Brightness only four of them exceeds value 4.It hyenas Algorab, Kraz and Minkar.They form characteristic of the heavenly pattern quadrangle.
The brightest star of the Raven is a gamma hyenas.She has a twinkle in 2,6m, is located at a distance of 124 light-years away.Hyenas - visual double star.
Beta Raven, KrAZ, according to scientists, is a yellow giant.However, in this state, he will stay for long.In the center of KrAZ completed the formation of a helium nucleus: in the near future, the scale space of time it will turn into a red giant and will be five times as bright.Having existed for a relatively short time in this form, Kraz become a white dwarf.
main attraction
However Raven - a constellation, famous not primarily its luminaries.On its territory there are two galaxies - NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 - are going through a collision.For the characteristic shape they are called "Antenna".The most famous object decorating constellation Corvus.Photography was repeatedly aired on Earth Hubble.
Initially both galaxies are spiral formation, like the Milky Way.They are placed very close to each other, which determined their future.For a long time they were approached and a few million years ago began their interaction.The first result of the collision was the release of a huge number of stars beyond the galaxy.Expelled lights formed a characteristic of the object "tails."Almost at the same time due to the collision of the interstellar gas the new born sun.They painted the glow of the interacting galaxies in the red.Many newly formed stars during the collision time to explode as supernovae.
scary accident
should be noted that these events for a hypothetical observer in one of the galaxies could proceed fairly innocuous.This is due to the sparse structure of such objects.In the process of interaction because of the huge distances between luminaries is no collision of stars.However safe this event can not be named because it has provoked an increase in the number of explosions and in the future, probably nuclei of galaxies will merge to form a massive black hole.
Due to such famous objects as "Antenna", the question of "whether there is a constellation of the Crow" does not even arise.The study of interacting galaxies great benefit astrophysicists to understand the evolution of these systems.And so Raven constellation of small and not very bright, often glimpsed in the messages related to outer space.However, for amateur astronomers this heavenly figure is attractive in itself.
