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>
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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>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
bloodthirsty:
Thirsty for blood: inexorably violent or eager for bloodshed; murderous.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bloodthirsty>
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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>