Latin meaning "peacock" is the name of the southern constellation Pavo. Pavo was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603, and it first appeared on a 35-cm (14 in) diameter celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius. It was imagined by Petrus Plancius based on observations made by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. The names of its stars were given by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, a French adventurer and scientist, in 1756. The combined name for the constellations Pavo, Grus, Phoenix, and Tucana are "Southern Birds."
The brightest star in the constellation, Alpha Pavonis, also called Peacock, is a spectroscopic binary that is a 1.91-magnitude blue-white star. A Sun-like star called Delta Pavonis is close by and 19.9 light years away. It has been discovered that six of the star systems in Pavo are home to planets, including HD 181433, which has a super-earth, and HD 172555, which has signs of a significant recent interplanetary collision. The constellation is home to the spiral galaxy NGC 6744, which is twice as massive as the Milky Way and the third-brightest globular cluster in the sky, NGC 6752. The Delta Pavonids meteor shower, who’s is radiant is close to the star Pavo, appears every year in Pavo. |
History and Mythology
The explorers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, who had travelled to the East Indies on the first Dutch trading expedition, known as the Eerste Schipvaart, had made observations of the southern sky, and these observations were used by Petrus Plancius to create one of the twelve constellations, Pavo. It initially appeared in 1598 in Amsterdam on a celestial globe with a diameter of 35 cm (14 in). Plancius and Jodocus Hondius published it. The Uranometria, a 1603 publication by German cartographer Johann Bayer, has the first representation of this constellation in a celestial atlas. The same year, De Houtman listed it in his southern star catalogue under the Dutch name De Pauww, or "The Peacock." The "Southern Birds" are a collective name for Pavo and the adjacent constellations Phoenix, Grus, and Tucana. (Moore 2000) |
Greek Mythology
Plancius may not have been the first person to refer to this cluster of stars as a peacock, according to Mark Chartrand, a former executive director of the National Space Institute: "In Greek myth, the stars that are now the Peacock were Argos (or Argus), builder of the ship Argo. He was changed by the goddess Juno into a peacock and placed in the sky along with his ship." (Chartrand III 1983) Another tale features the peacock with the designation "Argus," in which Zeus lusted after the lovely princess of Argos Io (Jupiter). To trick his wife (and sister) Hera and couple with her, Zeus transformed Io into a cow. Zeus's plan was exposed by Hera, who requested the heifer as a gift. Zeus, unable to turn down such a fair request, grudgingly gave the heifer to Hera, who immediately exiled Io and appointed the beast with one hundred eyes known as Argus Panoptes to protect the pregnant Io from Zeus. Zeus pleaded with Hermes to save Io while Argus Panoptes was soothed to sleep by Hermes' use of music before being killed. Hera painted Argus's eyes in his eyes on the tail of a peacock, her favourite bird. The account of Argus Panoptes' demise in Ovid's Metamorphoses also includes a direct allusion to the heavens: "With so many eyes that were all buried in darkness at once, Argus lay dead. Hera's Saturnia (the peacock Pavo) collected those eyeballs and placed them amid the feathers of her bird before decorating his tail with starry pearls." It is unknown whether the Dutch astronomers were inspired by Greek mythology when they created Pavo, but in keeping with other constellations introduced by Plancius through Keyser and De Houtmann, the new constellation's "peacock" probably referred to the green peacock that the explorers would have seen in the East Indies rather than the blue peacock that the ancient Greeks were familiar with. |
Characteristics
Telescopium, Apus, Ara, Octans, and Indus are Pavo's neighbours in the north, west, south, east, and northeast, respectively. It occupies 378 square degrees, which places it 44th in size out of eighty-eight contemporary constellations and takes up 0.916 percent of the night sky. (Bagnall 2012) The International Astronomical Union chose "Pav" as the three-letter abbreviation for the constellation in 1922. (Russell 1922)
A polygon of ten segments, established by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, defines the limits of the recognised constellations. These borders' right ascension values in the equatorial coordinate system range from 18h 10.4m to 21h 32.4m, while their declination coordinates fall between 56.59° and 74.98°. It stays below the horizon as one of the deep southern constellations.
Telescopium, Apus, Ara, Octans, and Indus are Pavo's neighbours in the north, west, south, east, and northeast, respectively. It occupies 378 square degrees, which places it 44th in size out of eighty-eight contemporary constellations and takes up 0.916 percent of the night sky. (Bagnall 2012) The International Astronomical Union chose "Pav" as the three-letter abbreviation for the constellation in 1922. (Russell 1922)
A polygon of ten segments, established by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, defines the limits of the recognised constellations. These borders' right ascension values in the equatorial coordinate system range from 18h 10.4m to 21h 32.4m, while their declination coordinates fall between 56.59° and 74.98°. It stays below the horizon as one of the deep southern constellations.
Planetary systems and debris
There have been discovered six stars with planetary systems. An inner super-earth with an orbital period of 9.4 days and two outer gas giants with periods of 2.6 and 6 years, respectively, have been identified in the solar system of the orange star HD 181433. (bouchy et al., 2009) All three stars—HD 196050, HD 175167, and HD 190984—have a gas giant partner. HD 196050 and HD 175167 are yellow G-class Sun-like stars, while HD 190984 is an F-class main sequence star that is a little bigger and hotter than the Sun. (Jones et al., 2002) Two planets of the young white A-type main sequence star HD 172555 appear to have recently undergone a significant collision.
The smaller of the two, which had been at least the size of the Earth's moon, was destroyed, while the larger, which had been at least the size of Mercury, was severely damaged, according to spectrographic evidence of significant amounts of silicon dioxide gas. The collision's evidence was found by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. (Lisse et al., 2009) Epsilon Pavonis, a white main sequence star of spectral type A0Va in the southern part of the constellation, is about 105 light years away from Earth. At a distance of 107 AU, it is surrounded by a little ring of dust. (Booth et al., 2013)
There have been discovered six stars with planetary systems. An inner super-earth with an orbital period of 9.4 days and two outer gas giants with periods of 2.6 and 6 years, respectively, have been identified in the solar system of the orange star HD 181433. (bouchy et al., 2009) All three stars—HD 196050, HD 175167, and HD 190984—have a gas giant partner. HD 196050 and HD 175167 are yellow G-class Sun-like stars, while HD 190984 is an F-class main sequence star that is a little bigger and hotter than the Sun. (Jones et al., 2002) Two planets of the young white A-type main sequence star HD 172555 appear to have recently undergone a significant collision.
The smaller of the two, which had been at least the size of the Earth's moon, was destroyed, while the larger, which had been at least the size of Mercury, was severely damaged, according to spectrographic evidence of significant amounts of silicon dioxide gas. The collision's evidence was found by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. (Lisse et al., 2009) Epsilon Pavonis, a white main sequence star of spectral type A0Va in the southern part of the constellation, is about 105 light years away from Earth. At a distance of 107 AU, it is surrounded by a little ring of dust. (Booth et al., 2013)
Deep-sky Objects
Main stars - 7
Bayer stars - 24
Stars with planets - 6
Stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 - 1
Stars within 32 Ly - 4
Bordering
constellations
Meteor showers
- NGC 6752 – Globular Cluster
- NGC 6744 – Intermediate Spiral Galaxy
- NGC 6810 – Spiral Galaxy
- NGC 6872 – Large Barred Spiral Galaxy
- IC 4662 – Irregular Dwarf Galaxy
- IC 4965 – Lenticular Galaxy
- IC 4970 – Unbarred Lenticular Galaxy
Main stars - 7
Bayer stars - 24
Stars with planets - 6
Stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 - 1
Stars within 32 Ly - 4
Bordering
constellations
- Octans
- Apus
- Ara
- Telescopium
- Indus
Meteor showers
- Delta Pavonids - Mid-March to early April, peaking Early April