- For other uses, see Centaurus (disambiguation).
Centaurus (Latin for centaur) was one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy, and counts also among the 88 modern constellations. This southern constellation is one of the largest in the sky.
Notable features
Centaurus is a bright constellation of the southern hemisphere.
It contains Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf that is the nearest known star (other than the Sun) to Earth, as well as Alpha Centauri, which is a triple star to which Proxima Centauri is apparently gravitationally bound.
It also contains BPM 37093, which is estimated to be a degenerate star, consisting of crystalline carbon.
Notable deep sky objects
It also contains Omega Centauri, the brightest globular cluster in the sky.
One of the deep-sky objects in Centaurus is the Boomerang nebula, the coldest location (1 Kelvin, −272°C) known to science.
History
It was mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.), Ptolemy catalogued thirty-seven stars in it.
Mythology
The constellation, when including fainter stars visible to the naked eye, resembles a stick man with the back end of a horse attached [1] (http://borghetto.astrofili.org/costellazioni/centaurus.JPG). According to Greek mythology, the constellation is Chiron who was a wise Centaur (half-man, half-horse) known as a tutor to Jason (the leader of the Argonauts), and tutor to Herakles (a demi-god).
Centaurus is sometimes associated with the constellation Sagitta, an arrow which Centaurus appears to have fired towards the constellation Aquila. As such, togeter with the constellation Lupus, and the fact that Centaurus is below the ecliptic, this may have formed the basis of the myth of the the Erymanthian Boar, one of The Twelve Labours of Herakles.
See Also
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![[1]](http://borghetto.astrofili.org/costellazioni/centaurus.JPG){kind=link}