Fomalhaut

Fomalhaut
/foh"meuhl hawt', -meuh loh'/, n. Astron.
a star of the first magnitude and the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.
[1585-95; < SpAr fam al-hawt mouth of the fish; so called from its position in the constellation]

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▪ star
also called  Alpha Piscis Austrini 
 the 17th star (excluding the Sun) in order of apparent brightness. It is used in navigation because of its conspicuous place in a sky region otherwise lacking in bright stars. It lies in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus, 25 light-years (light-year) from Earth. A white star, it has an apparent magnitude of 1.16. A sixth-magnitude companion star, HR 8721, is yellow and orbits at a distance of about 0.9 light-year. A belt of dust orbits between 19.9 and 23.6 billion km (12.4 and 14.7 billion miles) from the star. Images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004 and 2006 showed a planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting inside the dust belt at a distance of 17.8 billion km (11.1 billion miles) from the star. These were the first confirmed images of an extrasolar planet. The planet has a mass three times that of Jupiter and an orbital period of 872 years.

      Fomalhaut was associated with the Roman goddess Ceres (associated with the analogous Sicilian and Greek goddess Demeter) and was worshipped; in astrology it is one of four royal stars.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Fomalhaut — Constelación Piscis Austrinus Ascensión recta α 22h 57min 39.1s …   Wikipedia Español

  • Fomalhaut b — vue en 2004 et en 2008. Étoile Nom Fomalhaut Ascension droite 22h 57m 39 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Fomalhaut b — ist ein etwa 25 Lichtjahre entfernter extrasolarer Planet, der den Stern Fomalhaut im Sternbild Südlicher Fisch umkreist. Er war der erste Exoplanet, der direkt, das heißt optisch in sichtbarem Licht, nachgewiesen werden konnte. Nahezu… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Fomalhaut b — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Fomalhaut b Planeta extrasolar Lista de planetas extrasolares Posición de Fomalhaut b en 2004 y 2006 ( …   Wikipedia Español

  • Fomalhaut — α Piscis Austrini Données d observation (Époque J2000.0) Ascension droite 22h  …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Fomalhaut — Fo mal*haut , n. [Ar., prop., mouth of the large fish: cf. F. Fomalhaut.] (Astron.) A star of the first magnitude, in the constellation Piscis Australis, or Southern Fish. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Fomalhaut — (Fomahand, arab.), Stern erster Größe (α) im südlichen Fisch …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Fomalhaut — (arab.), Stern erster Größe im Sternbild des südl. Fisches …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Fomalhaut — (α PsA / α Piscis Austrini / Alpha Piscis Austrini) es la estrella más brillante de la constelación Piscis Austrinus y una de las estrellas más brillantes en el cielo nocturno. Su nombre significa boca de ballena , del Árabe فم الحوت fum al ħūt.… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Fomalhaut —   [arabisch fam al hut »Maul des Fisches«], seit 1603 Name des Sterns α im Sternbild Südlicher Fisch, in Mitteleuropa nur im Herbst tief im Süden sichtbar; scheinbare visuelle Helligkeit 1m,16, Entfernung 7 pc ≈ 23 Lichtjahre.   …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Fomalhaut — bright star in the constellation Piscis Austrinis, 1594, from Arabic Fum al Hut the Fish s Mouth, which describes its position in the imaginary star picture …   Etymology dictionary

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