Microscopium is a minor constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, one of twelve created in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. Its stars are faint and hardly visible from most of the non-tropical Northern Hemisphere. The constellation's brightest star is Gamma Microscopii, of apparent magnitude 4.68, a yellow giant 2.5 times the Sun's mass. Now around 381 light-years distant, it may have been only 1.14 light-years from the Sun some 3.9 million years ago, possibly disturbing the outer Solar System. Two star systems—WASP-7 and HD 205739—have planets, while two others—the young red dwarf star AU Microscopii and the sunlike HD 202628—have debris disks. AU Microscopii and the binary red dwarf system AT Microscopii are probably a wide triple system and members of the Beta Pictoris moving group. BO Microscopii, nicknamed "Speedy Mic", is a star with an extremely fast rotation period of 9 hours 7 minutes.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscopium
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1517:
According to traditional accounts, Martin Luther first posted his Ninety-five Theses onto the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, present-day Germany, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses
1917:
World War I: Allied forces defeated Turkish troops in Beersheba in Southern Palestine at the Battle of Beersheba, with the battle involving one of the last successful cavalry charges. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beersheba_%281917%29
1941:
Approximately 400 workers completed the 60-foot (18 m) busts of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore
1984:
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, sparking riots that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Indira_Gandhi
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
bloodthirsty: Thirsty for blood: inexorably violent or eager for bloodshed; murderous. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bloodthirsty
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am beginning to have a healthy dread of possessions, be it of a country, a house, a being or even an idea. If we are bothered by possessions we cannot really live either from without or from within; we are the possession of our possessions. All wars and most loves come from the possessive instinct. Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists when you can ignore them like wise men: that you may belong to everything and everything be yours inclusive of yourself. Could we, and we can, have the vital necessities for all, we should do away with this cry of class and begin to differentiate between individuals. --Natalie Clifford Barney https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Natalie_Clifford_Barney