Pavo is a constellation in the southern sky whose name is Latin for "peacock". It is one of twelve constellations established by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. First appearing on a 35 cm (14 in) diameter celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius, it was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603. Pavo's brightest member, Alpha Pavonis, is also known as Peacock and appears as a 1.91-magnitude blue-white star, but is actually a spectroscopic binary. Delta Pavonis is a Sun-like star some 19.9 light years distant. Six of the star systems in Pavo have been found to host planets, including HD 181433 with a super-Earth, and HD 172555 with evidence of a major interplanetary collision in the past few thousand years. Pavo also contains NGC 6752, the fourth-brightest globular cluster in the sky, and NGC 6744, a spiral galaxy which closely resembles our Milky Way, with a diameter twice as wide.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavo_%28constellation%29
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1891:
During a visit of the French Navy to Kronstadt in Russia, the two nations reached a secret agreement on a joint response to any future war in Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt%E2%80%93Toulon_naval_visits
1921:
The first National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party opened in a house in Shanghai. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Communist_Party
1968:
A shootout between police and a Black power group began in Cleveland, Ohio, sparking three days of rioting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenville_shootout
2001:
Megawati Sukarnoputri became the first female president of Indonesia after her predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid was removed from office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megawati_Sukarnoputri
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
oakum: 1. Coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning. 2. Fibres chiefly obtained by untwisting old rope, which are used to caulk or pack gaps between boards of wooden ships and joints in masonry and plumbing, and sometimes for dressing wounds. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oakum
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is the best day ever — and so is yesterday, and so is tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and even Wednesdays, and every day from now until forever! --Barbie https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barbie_%28film%29
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