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46-469: Blue-white α Crucis (Acrux) is the most southerly member of the constellation and, at magnitude 0.8, the brightest. The three other stars of the cross appear clockwise and in order of lessening magnitude: β Crucis (Mimosa), γ Crucis (Gacrux), and δ Crucis (Imai). ε Crucis (Ginan) also lies within the cross asterism. Many of these brighter stars are members of the Scorpius–Centaurus association ,

92-589: A star map ; in addition to the 48 constellations of Ptolemy , and the additions of more recent astronomers and cartographers such as Plancius , he added two constellations of his own, in honour of his patron, Louis XIV; Lilium (the Lily, representing the emblem of France) and Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae (the Sceptre and the Hand of Justice, depicting the regal symbols). Neither of these constellations has survived in

138-473: A large but loose group of hot blue-white stars that appear to share common origins and motion across the southern Milky Way. Crux contains four Cepheid variables , each visible to the naked eye under optimum conditions. Crux also contains the bright and colourful open cluster known as the Jewel Box (NGC 4755) on its eastern border. Nearby to the southeast is a large dark nebula spanning 7° by 5° known as

184-565: A line from γ to α Crucis (the foot of the crucifix) approximately 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 times beyond gives a point close to the Southern Celestial Pole which is also, coincidentally, where intersects a perpendicular line taken southwards from the east–west axis of Alpha Centauri to Beta Centauri , which are stars at an alike declination to Crux and of a similar width as the cross, but higher magnitude. Argentine gauchos are documented as using Crux for night orientation in

230-610: A planet— HD 106906 b —that has one of the widest orbits of any currently known planetary-mass companions. Crux is backlit by the multitude of stars of the Scutum-Crux Arm (more commonly called the Scutum-Centaurus Arm ) of the Milky Way. This is the main inner arm in the local radial quarter of the galaxy. Part-obscuring this is: A key feature of the Scutum-Crux Arm is: The most prominent feature of Crux

276-868: Is a major rail terminal in Melbourne, Australia. The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross is a personal ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church primarily within the territory of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for groups of Anglicans who desire full communion with the Catholic Church in Australia and Asia. The Knights of the Southern Cross (KSC) is a Catholic fraternal order throughout Australia. In India, there

322-526: Is a story related to the creation of Trishanku Swarga (त्रिशंकु), meaning Cross (Crux), created by Sage Vishwamitra . In Chinese , 十字架 ( Shí Zì Jià ), meaning Cross , refers to an asterism consisting of γ Crucis, α Crucis , β Crucis and δ Crucis . In Australian Aboriginal astronomy , Crux and the Coalsack mark the head of the 'Emu in the Sky' (which is seen in the dark spaces rather than in

368-579: Is also mentioned in the Samoan National Anthem . " Vaai 'i na fetu o lo'u a agiagia ai: Le faailoga lea o Iesu, na maliu ai mo Samoa. " ("Look at those stars that are waving on it: This is the symbol of Jesus, who died on it for Samoa.") The 1952-53 NBC Television Series Victory At Sea contained a musical number entitled "Beneath the Southern Cross". " Southern Cross " is a single released by Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1981. It reached #18 on Billboard Hot 100 in late 1982. "The Sign of

414-599: Is also shared by an archaic name of the constellation in Vietnam , where it was once known as sao Cá Liệt (the ponyfish star). Among Filipino people , the southern cross have various names pertaining to tops , including kasing ( Visayan languages ), paglong ( Bikol ), and pasil ( Tagalog ). It is also called butiti ( puffer fish ) in Waray . The Javanese people of Indonesia called this constellation Gubug pèncèng ("raking hut") or lumbung ("the granary"), because

460-484: Is also visible near the horizon from tropical latitudes of the northern hemisphere for a few hours every night during the northern winter and spring. For instance, it is visible from Cancun or any other place at latitude 25° N or less at around 10 pm at the end of April. There are 5 main stars. Due to precession , Crux will move closer to the South Pole in the next millennia, up to 67 degrees south declination for

506-478: Is sometimes confused with the nearby False Cross asterism by stargazers. The False Cross consists of stars in Carina and Vela, is larger and dimmer, does not have a fifth star, and lacks the two prominent nearby "Pointer Stars". Between the two is the even larger and dimmer Diamond Cross . Crux is easily visible from the southern hemisphere , south of 35th parallel at practically any time of year as circumpolar. It

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552-495: Is the distinctive asterism known as the Southern Cross. It has great significance in the cultures of the southern hemisphere, particularly of Australia, Brazil, Chile and New Zealand. Several southern countries and organisations have traditionally used Crux as a national or distinctive symbol. The four or five brightest stars of Crux appear, heraldically standardised in various ways, on the flags of Australia , Brazil , New Zealand , Papua New Guinea and Samoa . They also appear on

598-625: Is the nearest OB association to the Sun . This stellar association is composed of three subgroups (Upper Scorpius, Upper Centaurus–Lupus, and Lower Centaurus–Crux) and its distance is about 130 parsecs or 420 light-years . Analysis using improved Hipparcos data has brought the number of known members to 436. The cluster shows a continuous spread of stars with no apparent need for subclassification. The Sco–Cen subgroups range in age from 11 million years (Upper Scorpius) to roughly 15 million years (Upper Centaurus–Lupus and Lower Centaurus–Crux). Many of

644-568: The Brazilian coat of arms and, as of July 2015, on the cover of Brazilian passports . Five stars appear in the logo of the Brazilian football team Cruzeiro Esporte Clube and in the insignia of the Order of the Southern Cross , and the cross has featured as name of the Brazilian currency (the cruzeiro from 1942 to 1986 and again from 1990 to 1994). All coins of the current (1998) series of

690-535: The Brazilian real display the constellation. Songs and literature reference the Southern Cross, including the Argentine epic poem Martín Fierro . The Argentinian singer Charly García says that he is "from the Southern Cross" in the song "No voy en tren". The Cross gets a mention in the lyrics of the Brazilian National Anthem (1909): " A imagem do Cruzeiro resplandece " ("the image of

736-586: The Coalsack Nebula , portions of which are mapped in the neighbouring constellations of Centaurus and Musca . The bright stars in Crux were known to the Ancient Greeks , where Ptolemy regarded them as part of the constellation Centaurus . They were entirely visible as far north as Britain in the fourth millennium BC. However, the precession of the equinoxes gradually lowered the stars below

782-475: The East Indies in an expedition sponsored by King Manuel I . In 1516, Corsali wrote a letter to the monarch describing his observations of the southern sky, which included a rather crude map of the stars around the south celestial pole including the Southern Cross and the two Magellanic Clouds seen in an external orientation, as on a globe. Emery Molyneux and Petrus Plancius have also been cited as

828-606: The German East Africa Company of 1885–1920, which included a constellation of five white five-pointed Crux "stars" on a red ground, later served as the model for symbolism associated with generic German colonial-oriented organisations: the Reichskolonialbund of 1936–1943 and the Friends of the former German Protectorates  [ de ] (1956/1983 to the present). Southern Cross station

874-586: The Loop I Bubble . To explain the presence of radioactive Fe in deep ocean ferromanganese crusts and in biogenic magnetite crystals within Pacific Ocean sediments it has been hypothesized that a nearby supernova , possibly a member of Sco–Cen, exploded in the Sun 's vicinity roughly 3 million years ago, causing the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary marine extinction . However, other findings cite

920-531: The Pampas and Patagonia . Alpha and Beta Centauri are of similar declinations (thus distance from the pole) and are often referred as the "Southern Pointers" or just "The Pointers", allowing people to easily identify the Southern Cross, the constellation of Crux. Very few bright stars lie between Crux and the pole itself, although the constellation Musca is fairly easily recognised immediately south of Crux. Down to apparent magnitude +2.5 are 92 stars that shine

966-624: The Scorpius–Centaurus association , the nearest OB association to the Sun . They are among the highest-mass stellar members of the Lower Centaurus–Crux subgroup of the association, with ages of roughly 10 to 20 million years. Other members include the blue-white stars Zeta , Lambda and both the components of the visual double star , Mu . Crux contains many variable stars . It boasts four Cepheid variables that may all reach naked eye visibility. Other well studied variable stars includes: The star HD 106906 has been found to have

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1012-658: The Solomon Islands saw several figures in the Southern Cross. These included a knee protector and a net used to catch Palolo worms . Neighboring peoples in the Marshall Islands saw these stars as a fish. Peninsular Malays also see the likeness of a fish in the Crux, particularly the Scomberomorus or its local name Tohok . Scorpius%E2%80%93Centaurus association The Scorpius–Centaurus association (sometimes called Sco–Cen or Sco OB2 )

1058-560: The Australian Eureka Flag . The constellation was also used on the dark blue, shield-like patch worn by personnel of the U.S. Army's Americal Division , which was organized in the Southern Hemisphere, on the island of New Caledonia , and also on the blue diamond of the U.S. 1st Marine Division , which fought on the Southern Hemisphere islands of Guadalcanal and New Britain . The Petersflagge flag of

1104-788: The Cross shines"). The Southern Cross is mentioned in the Australian National Anthem , " Beneath our radiant Southern Cross we'll toil with hearts and hands " The Southern Cross features in the coat of arms of William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood , the British officer who commanded the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War . The Southern Cross

1150-490: The European horizon, and they were eventually forgotten by the inhabitants of northern latitudes. By 400  AD , the stars in the constellation now called Crux never rose above the horizon throughout most of Europe. Dante may have known about the constellation in the 14th century, as he describes an asterism of four bright stars in the southern sky in his Divine Comedy . His description, however, may be allegorical, and

1196-605: The Pointers are its rope. In Tonga it is known as Toloa ("duck"); it is depicted as a duck flying south, with one of his wings ( δ Crucis ) wounded because Ongo tangata ("two men", α and β Centauri ) threw a stone at it. The Coalsack is known as Humu (the " triggerfish "), because of its shape. In Samoa the constellation is called Sumu ("triggerfish") because of its rhomboid shape, while α and β Centauri are called Luatagata (Two Men), just as they are in Tonga. The peoples of

1242-509: The Southern Cross" is a song released by Black Sabbath in 1981. The song was released on the album " Mob Rules ". The Order of the Southern Cross is a Brazilian order of chivalry awarded to "those who have rendered significant service to the Brazilian nation". In " O Sweet Saint Martin's Land ", the lyrics mention the Southern Cross: Thy Southern Cross the night . A stylized version of Crux appears on

1288-692: The Upper Scorpius association. The subgroups of the Scorpius-Centaurus association contains the youngest transiting exoplanets : K2-33 b (11 Myrs), TOI-1227 b (11 Myrs) and HIP 67522 b (17 Myrs). It also contains directly imaged exoplanets such as UScoCTIO 108 b and the PDS 70 system. Augustin Royer Augustin Royer was a French architect who lived in the time of Louis XIV . In 1679 he published

1334-424: The asterism are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta Crucis. There is also a fifth star, that is often included with the Southern Cross. There are several other naked-eye stars within the borders of Crux, especially: Unusually, a total of 15 of the 23 brightest stars in Crux are spectrally blue-white B-type stars. Among the five main bright stars, Delta, and probably Alpha and Beta, are likely co-moving B-type members of

1380-549: The bright stars in the constellations Scorpius , Lupus , Centaurus , and Crux are members of the Sco–Cen association, including Antares (the most massive member of Upper Scorpius), and most of the stars in the Southern Cross . Hundreds of stars have been identified as members of Sco-Cen, with masses ranging from roughly 15 solar masses (Antares) down to below the hydrogen-burning limit (i.e. brown dwarfs ), and

1426-567: The brightest as viewed from the Earth . Three of these stars are in Crux making it the most densely populated as to those stars (this being 3.26% of these 92 stars, and in turn being 19.2 times more than the expected 0.17% that would result on a homogenous distribution of all bright stars and a randomised drawing of all 88 constellations, given its area, 0.17% of the sky). Within the constellation's borders, there are 49 stars brighter than or equal to apparent magnitude 6.5. The four main stars that form

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1472-538: The constellation (calling it " las guardas ") in a letter written on the beaches of Brazil on 1 May 1500 to the Portuguese monarch. Explorer Amerigo Vespucci seems to have observed not only the Southern Cross but also the neighboring Coalsack Nebula on his second voyage in 1501–1502. Another early modern description clearly describing Crux as a separate constellation is attributed to Andrea Corsali , an Italian navigator who from 1515 to 1517 sailed to China and

1518-554: The constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Cru". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of four segments. In the equatorial coordinate system , the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 11 56.13 and 12 57.45 , while the declination coordinates are between −55.68° and −64.70°. Its totality figures at least part of

1564-661: The distance at which this supernova occurred at more than 100 parsec, maintaining that it is not likely not to have contributed to this extinction through the mechanism of what is known as the ultra-violet B (UV-B) catastrophe. In 2019, researchers found interstellar iron in Antarctica which they relate to the Local Interstellar Cloud , which might have been formed near the Sco-Cen association. In December 2021, around 70 new rogue planets were discovered in

1610-582: The first uranographers (sky mappers) to distinguish Crux as a separate constellation; their representations date from 1592, the former depicting it on his celestial globe and the latter in one of the small celestial maps on his large wall map. Both authors, however, depended on unreliable sources and placed Crux in the wrong position. Crux was first shown in its correct position on the celestial globes of Petrus Plancius and Jodocus Hondius in 1598 and 1600. Its stars were first catalogued separately from Centaurus by Frederick de Houtman in 1603. The constellation

1656-605: The flags of the Australian state of Victoria , the Australian Capital Territory , the Northern Territory , as well as the flag of Magallanes Region of Chile , the flag of Londrina (Brazil) and several Argentine provincial flags and emblems (for example, Tierra del Fuego and Santa Cruz ). The flag of the Mercosur trading zone displays the four brightest stars. Crux also appears on

1702-485: The handle and the four stars as the left hand of Tagai, and the stars of Musca as the trident of the fishing spear he is holding. In Aranda traditions of central Australia, the four Cross stars are the talon of an eagle and Gamma Centauri as its leg. Various peoples in the East Indies and Brazil viewed the four main stars as the body of a ray. In both Indonesia and Malaysia, it is known as Bintang Pari and Buruj Pari , respectively ("ray stars"). This aquatic theme

1748-572: The middle of the constellation. However, by the year 14,000, Crux will be visible for most parts of Europe and the continental United States. Its visibility will extend to North Europe by the year 18,000 when it will be less than 30 degrees south declination. In the Southern Hemisphere , the Southern Cross is frequently used for navigation in much the same way that Polaris is used in the Northern Hemisphere . Projecting

1794-631: The patterns of stars) in several Aboriginal cultures , while Crux itself is said to be a possum sitting in a tree ( Boorong people of the Wimmera region of northwestern Victoria), a representation of the sky deity Mirrabooka ( Quandamooka people of Stradbroke Island ), a stingray ( Yolngu people of Arnhem Land ), or an eagle ( Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains ). Two Pacific constellations also included Gamma Centauri . Torres Strait Islanders in modern-day Australia saw Gamma Centauri as

1840-456: The periphery of Sco–Cen, including the ~3–5 million-year-old Epsilon Chamaeleontis group , ~7 million-year-old Eta Chamaeleontis moving group , ~8 million-year-old TW Hydrae association , ~12 million-year-old Beta Pictoris moving group , and possibly the ~30–50 million-year-old IC 2602 open cluster. The stellar members of the Sco–Cen association have convergent proper motions of approximately 0.02–0.04 arcseconds per year, indicative that

1886-480: The shape of the constellation was like that of a raking hut . The Southern Cross ( α , β , γ and δ Crucis ) together with μ Crucis is one of the asterisms used by Bugis sailors for navigation, called bintoéng bola képpang , meaning "incomplete house star" The Māori name for the Southern Cross is Māhutonga and it is thought of as the anchor ( Te Punga ) of Tama-rereti's waka (the Milky Way ), while

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1932-499: The similarity to the constellation a coincidence. The 15th century Venetian navigator Alvise Cadamosto made note of what was probably the Southern Cross on exiting the Gambia River in 1455, calling it the carro dell'ostro ("southern chariot"). However, Cadamosto's accompanying diagram was inaccurate. Historians generally credit João Faras for being the first European to depict it correctly. Faras sketched and described

1978-403: The stars have nearly parallel velocity vectors, moving at about 20 km/s with respect to the Sun . The dispersion of the velocities within the subgroups are only of order 1–2 km/s, and the group is most likely gravitationally unbound. Several supernovae have exploded in Sco–Cen over the past 15 million years, leaving a network of expanding gas superbubbles around the group, including

2024-596: The total stellar population in each of the three subgroups is probably of the order 1000–2000. The Sco–Cen OB association appears to be the most pronounced part of a large complex of recent (<20 million years) and ongoing star-formation. The complex contains several star-forming molecular clouds in Sco–Cen's immediate vicinity—the Rho Oph , Pipe Nebula , Barnard 68 , Chamaeleon , Lupus , Corona Australis , and Coalsack cloud complexes (all at distances of ~120-200 parsecs), and several less populous, young stellar groups on

2070-414: The year south of the 25th parallel north . In tropical regions Crux can be seen in the sky from April to June. Crux is exactly opposite to Cassiopeia on the celestial sphere, and therefore it cannot appear in the sky with the latter at the same time. In this era, south of Cape Town , Adelaide , and Buenos Aires (the 34th parallel south ), Crux is circumpolar and thus always appears in the sky. Crux

2116-477: Was later adopted by Jakob Bartsch in 1624 and Augustin Royer in 1679. Royer is sometimes wrongly cited as initially distinguishing Crux. Crux is bordered by the constellations Centaurus (which surrounds it on three sides) on the east, north and west, and Musca to the south. Covering 68 square degrees and 0.165% of the night sky, it is the smallest of the 88 constellations. The three-letter abbreviation for

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