Southern Crab

From All Skies Encyclopaedia

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Youla Azkarrula


Southern Crab in the 2MASS survey as displayed by Aladin.
Southern Crab
Asterism Info
Native
southern crab
Translation
southern crab
Position (2000)
Right ascension212.9669185
Declination-51.44005198
Area0 sq. deg.
Stars
Bright stars1
Bayer/Flamsteed
stars
1
Stars brighter than 3.00m0
Brightest starSouthern Crab (14.2m)
Taxonomy
category
of asterism
IAU-Star Name
IAU-
constellations
Cen

Southern Crab is a modern star name adopted by the International Astronomical Union in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN). Its origin is English language as lingua franca of modern astrophysics. It is the name of the symbiotic star WRAY 16-147 (Vmag 14.2) in constellation Centaurus.

Concordance, Etymology, History

The name was first used in March 1989, both in scientific and public media. It was used in a note in The Messenger by Schwarz in March 1989,[1] then, in April, in the publication Schwarz, Aspin and Lutz (1989) in the title "A southern Crab".[2] and immediately taken up in public media, e.g. in French, in the popular magazine "Ciel et Espace", Vol. 235 (1989)[3], J.-F. Robredo titled "Decouverte : une "nebuleuse du Crabe" dans l'hemisphere sud." (Discovery: a crab nebula in the southern hemisphere) and the Sky&Telescope[4] note on this discovery in April and another one in December 1989[5].

Susequently, other researchers used this name in English research papers, e.g. Igumenshchev et al. (1990)[6].

Mythology

no mythologoy.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was adopted by the IAU WGSN in 2026, as it has been in popular use among astrophysicists and listed in SIMBAD already.


Reference

  1. Schwarz, H., “The Southern Crab.”, The Messenger, vol. 55, pp. 1–2, 1989.
  2. Schwarz, Aspin and Lutz, "A southern 'Crab'.", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Vol. 99, p. 51
  3. Robredo, J.-F., “Decouverte : une "nebuleuse du Crabe" dans l'hemisphere sud.”, <i>Ciel et Espace</i>, vol. 235, pp. 22–23, 1989.
  4. No author, “The Real Crab Nebula / the Southern Crab”, Sky and Telescope, vol. 77, p. 357, 1989.
  5. No author, “Making the Southern Crab”, <i>Sky and Telescope</i>, vol. 78, p. 571, 1989
  6. Igumenshchev, I. V., Tutukov, A. V., and Shustov, B. M., “Dynamical model of southern Crab.”, <i>Astronomicheskii Zhurnal</i>, vol. 67, p. 511, 1990.