HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Lynx is a
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...
named after
the animal ''The Animal'' is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Luke Greenfield, written by Rob Schneider and Tom Brady, and starring Schneider in the lead role, Colleen Haskell, John C. McGinley, Guy Torry, and Edward Asner. The film depicts a police ...
, usually observed in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere. The constellation was introduced in the late 17th century by
Johannes Hevelius Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish: * * * * * * * Some sources refer to Hevelius as German: * * * * *of the Royal Society * (in German also known as ''Hevel''; pl, Jan Heweliusz; – 28 January 1687) was a councillor ...
. It is a faint constellation, with its brightest stars forming a zigzag line. The orange giant Alpha Lyncis is the brightest star in the constellation, and the
semiregular variable In astronomy, a semiregular variable star, a type of variable star, is a giant or supergiant of intermediate and late (cooler) spectral type showing considerable periodicity in its light changes, accompanied or sometimes interrupted by various irre ...
star Y Lyncis is a target for
amateur astronomers Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomer ...
. Six star systems have been found to contain
planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...
. Those of
6 Lyncis 6 Lyncis is a star in the northern constellation of Lynx, located approximately 179 light years from Earth. It is visible to the naked eye as a dim, orange-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 5.86. This object is moving away ...
and
HD 75898 HD 75898 is an 8th magnitude star approximately 255 light years away in the constellation Lynx. The star is 28% more massive, 60% larger, and 3 times as luminous than our local star. It is a metal-rich star, with 186% the solar abund ...
were discovered by the Doppler method; those of XO-2,
XO-4 XO-4 is a star located approximately 896 light-years away from Earth in the Lynx constellation. It has a magnitude of about 11 and cannot be seen with the naked eye but is visible through a small telescope. A search for a binary compani ...
,
XO-5 XO-5 is a yellow dwarf main sequence star located approximately 910 light-years away from Earth in the Lynx constellation. It has a magnitude of about 12 and cannot be seen with the naked eye but is visible through a small telescope. ...
and
WASP-13 WASP-13, also named Gloas, is a star in the Lynx constellation. The star is similar, in terms of metallicity and mass, to the Sun, although it is hotter and most likely older. The star was first observed in 1997, according to the SIMBAD ...
were observed as they passed in front of the host star. Within the constellation's borders lie
NGC 2419 NGC 2419 (also known as Caldwell 25) is a globular cluster in the constellation Lynx. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 31, 1788. NGC 2419 is at a distance of about 300,000 light years from the Solar System and at the same dista ...
, an unusually remote
globular cluster A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars. Globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of membe ...
; the galaxy NGC 2770, which has hosted three recent
Type Ib supernova Type Ib and Type Ic supernovae are categories of supernovae that are caused by the stellar core collapse of massive stars. These stars have shed or been stripped of their outer envelope of hydrogen, and, when compared to the spectru ...
e; the distant quasar APM 08279+5255, whose light is magnified and split into multiple images by the
gravitational lens A gravitational lens is a distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies) between a distant light source and an observer that is capable of bending the light from the source as the light travels toward the observer. This effect is known ...
ing effect of a foreground galaxy; and the Lynx Supercluster, which was the most distant supercluster known at the time of its discovery in 1999.


History

Polish astronomer
Johannes Hevelius Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish: * * * * * * * Some sources refer to Hevelius as German: * * * * *of the Royal Society * (in German also known as ''Hevel''; pl, Jan Heweliusz; – 28 January 1687) was a councillor ...
formed the constellation in 1687 from 19 faint stars between the constellations
Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...
and
Auriga AURIGA (''Antenna Ultracriogenica Risonante per l'Indagine Gravitazionale Astronomica'') is an ultracryogenic resonant bar gravitational wave detector in Italy. It is at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nuclea ...
that earlier had been part of the obsolete constellation Jordanus Fluvius. Naming it Lynx because of its faintness, he challenged future stargazers to see it, declaring that only the lynx-eyed (those with good sight) would have been able to recognize it. Hevelius used the name Tigris (Tiger) in his catalogue as well, but kept the former name only in his atlas. English astronomer
John Flamsteed John Flamsteed (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, ''Catalogus Britannicus'', and a star atlas called '' Atlas C ...
adopted the constellation in his catalogue, published in 1712, and his subsequent atlas. According to 19th-century amateur astronomer
Richard Hinckley Allen In astronomy, stars have a variety of different stellar designations and names, including catalogue designations, current and historical proper names, and foreign language names. Only a tiny minority of known stars have proper names; all others ha ...
, the chief stars in Lynx "might well have been utilized by the modern constructor, whoever he was, of our Ursa Major to complete the quartette of feet."


Characteristics

Lynx is bordered by Camelopardalis to the north, Auriga to the west,
Gemini Gemini may refer to: Space * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac ** Gemini in Chinese astronomy * Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program * Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Norther ...
to the southwest,
Cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
to the south, Leo to the east and
Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...
to the northeast. Covering 545.4 square degrees and 1.322% of the night sky, it ranks 28th of the 88 constellations in size, surpassing better known constellations such as Gemini. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the
International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
in 1922, is "Lyn". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer
Eugène Delporte Eugene is a common male given name that comes from the Greek εὐγενής (''eugenēs''), "noble", literally "well-born", from εὖ (''eu''), "well" and γένος (''genos''), "race, stock, kin".equatorial coordinate system The equatorial coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system widely used to specify the positions of celestial objects. It may be implemented in spherical or rectangular coordinates, both defined by an origin at the centre of Earth, a fund ...
, the
right ascension Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol ) is the angular distance of a particular point measured eastward along the celestial equator from the Sun at the March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in question above the earth. When paired w ...
coordinates of these borders lie between and , and the
declination In astronomy, declination (abbreviated dec; symbol ''δ'') is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. Declination's angle is measured north or south of the ...
coordinates are between +32.97° and +61.96°. On dark nights, the brighter stars can be seen as a crooked line extending roughly between Camelopardalis and Leo, and north of the bright star Castor. Lynx is most readily observed from the late winter to late summer to northern hemisphere observers, with midnight culmination occurring on 20 January. The whole constellation is visible to observers north of latitude 28°S.


Notable features


Stars

English astronomer
Francis Baily Francis Baily (28 April 177430 August 1844) was an English astronomer. He is most famous for his observations of "Baily's beads" during a total eclipse of the Sun. Baily was also a major figure in the early history of the Royal Astronomical S ...
gave a single star a Bayer designationAlpha Lyncis—while Flamsteed numbered 44 stars, though several lie across the boundary in Ursa Major. Overall, there are 97 stars within the constellation's borders brighter than or equal to
apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...
6.5. The brightest star in this constellation is Alpha Lyncis, with an apparent (visual) magnitude of 3.14. It is an
orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
of
spectral type In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the ...
K7III located 203 ± 2 light-years distant from Earth. Around twice as massive as the
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, it has exhausted the
hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
at its
core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the centra ...
and has evolved away from the
main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...
. The star has swollen to about 55 times the Sun's radius and is emitting roughly 673 times the
luminosity of the Sun The solar luminosity (), is a unit of radiant flux ( power emitted in the form of photons) conventionally used by astronomers to measure the luminosity of stars, galaxies and other celestial objects in terms of the output of the Sun. One nominal ...
. The
stellar atmosphere The stellar atmosphere is the outer region of the volume of a star, lying above the stellar core, radiation zone and convection zone. Overview The stellar atmosphere is divided into several regions of distinct character: * The photosphere, whi ...
has cooled, giving it a surface temperature of 3,880  K. For Mbol, see Table 1. The only star with a
proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', '' Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
is Alsciaukat (from the
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
for thorn), also known as 31 Lyncis, located 380 ± 10 light-years from Earth. This star is also an evolved giant with around twice the Sun's mass that has swollen and cooled since exhausting its core hydrogen. It is anywhere from 59 to 75 times as wide as the Sun, and 740 times as luminous. Alsciaukat is also a variable star, ranging in brightness by 0.05 magnitude over 25 to 30 days from its baseline magnitude of 4.25. Lynx is rich in double stars. The second brightest star in the constellation is 38 Lyncis at magnitude 3.8. When viewed through a moderate telescope, the two components—a brighter blue-white star of magnitude 3.9 and a fainter star of magnitude 6.1 that has been described as lilac as well as blue-white—can be seen. 15 Lyncis is another star that is found to be a double system when viewed through a telescope, separating into two yellowish stars of magnitudes 4.7 and 5.8 that are 0.9 arcseconds apart. The components are a yellow giant of spectral type G8III that is around 4.01 times as massive as the Sun, and a yellow-white main sequence star of spectral type F8V that is around 3.73 times as massive as the Sun. Orbiting each other every 262 years, the stars are 178 ± 2 light years distant from Earth. 12 Lyncis has a combined apparent magnitude of 4.87. When seen through a telescope, it can be separated into three stars: two components with magnitudes 5.4 and 6.0 that lie at an angular separation by 1.8 () and a yellow-hued star of magnitude 7.2 at a separation of 8.6″ (as of 1990). The two brighter stars are estimated to orbit each other with a period that is poorly known but estimated to be roughly 700 to 900 years. The 12 Lyncis system is 210 ± 10 light years distant from Earth. 10 Ursae Majoris is the third-brightest star in Lynx. Originally in the neighbouring constellation Ursa Major, it became part of Lynx with the official establishment of the constellation's borders. Appearing to be of magnitude 3.97, a telescope reveals a yellow-white main sequence star of spectral type F4V of magnitude 4.11 and a star very similar to the Sun of spectral type G5V and magnitude 6.18. The two are 10.6 
astronomical unit The astronomical unit (symbol: au, or or AU) is a unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun and approximately equal to or 8.3 light-minutes. The actual distance from Earth to the Sun varies by about 3% as Earth orbits t ...
s (au) apart and orbit each other every 21.78 years. The system is 52.4 ± 0.6 light-years distant from Earth. Likewise 16 Lyncis was originally known as Psi10 Aurigae and conversely, 37, 39, 41 and 44 Lyncis became part of Ursa Major. Y Lyncis is a popular target among amateur astronomers, as it is a
semiregular variable In astronomy, a semiregular variable star, a type of variable star, is a giant or supergiant of intermediate and late (cooler) spectral type showing considerable periodicity in its light changes, accompanied or sometimes interrupted by various irre ...
ranging in brightness from magnitude 6.2 to 8.9. These shifts in brightness are complex, with a shorter period of 110 days due to the star's pulsations, and a longer period of 1400 days possibly due to the star's rotation or regular cycles in its
convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convec ...
. A
red supergiant Red supergiants (RSGs) are stars with a supergiant luminosity class ( Yerkes class I) of spectral type K or M. They are the largest stars in the universe in terms of volume, although they are not the most massive or luminous. Betelgeuse and Ant ...
, it has an estimated diameter around 580 times that of the Sun, is around 1.5 to 2 times as massive, and has a
luminosity Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic power (light), the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object over time. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per unit of time by a st ...
around 25,000 times that of the Sun. 1 Lyncis and UX Lyncis are
red giant A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around or ...
s that are also semiregular variables with complex fluctuations in brightness. Six star systems have been found to contain
exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
s, of which two were discovered by the Doppler method and four by the transit method.
6 Lyncis 6 Lyncis is a star in the northern constellation of Lynx, located approximately 179 light years from Earth. It is visible to the naked eye as a dim, orange-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 5.86. This object is moving away ...
, an orange subgiant that spent much of its life as an A-type or F-type main sequence star, is orbited by a planet with a
minimum mass In astronomy, minimum mass is the lower-bound calculated mass of observed objects such as planets, stars and binary systems, nebulae, and black holes. Minimum mass is a widely cited statistic for extrasolar planets detected by the radial veloci ...
of 2.4
Jupiter mass Jupiter mass, also called Jovian mass, is the unit of mass equal to the total mass of the planet Jupiter. This value may refer to the mass of the planet alone, or the mass of the entire Jovian system to include the moons of Jupiter. Jupiter is by ...
es and an
orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...
of 899 days.
HD 75898 HD 75898 is an 8th magnitude star approximately 255 light years away in the constellation Lynx. The star is 28% more massive, 60% larger, and 3 times as luminous than our local star. It is a metal-rich star, with 186% the solar abund ...
is a 3.8 ± 0.8 billion-year-old yellow star of spectral type G0V that has just begun expanding and cooling off the main sequence. It has a planet at least 2.51 times as massive as Jupiter orbiting with a period of around 418 days. The centre of mass of the system is accelerating, indicating there is a third, more distant, component at least the size of Jupiter. Three star systems were found to have planets that were observed by the
XO Telescope The XO Telescope is an astronomical telescope located on the 3,054 m (10,000 foot) summit of Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii. It consists of two 200-millimeter telephoto camera lenses, and resembles binoculars in shape. It is used by the XO Project ...
in Hawaii as they passed in front of them. XO-2 is a
binary star system A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...
, both the stars of which are slightly less massive and cooler than the Sun and have planetary companions: XO-2S has a
Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
-mass planet at 0.13 au distance with a period of around 18 days, and one a little more massive than
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
at a distance of 0.48 au and with a period of around 120 days, and XO-2N has a
hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere tem ...
with around half Jupiter's mass that has an orbit of only 2.6 days.
XO-4 XO-4 is a star located approximately 896 light-years away from Earth in the Lynx constellation. It has a magnitude of about 11 and cannot be seen with the naked eye but is visible through a small telescope. A search for a binary compani ...
is an F-type main sequence star that is a little hotter and more massive than the Sun that has a hot Jupiter orbiting with a period of around 4.1 days.
XO-5 XO-5 is a yellow dwarf main sequence star located approximately 910 light-years away from Earth in the Lynx constellation. It has a magnitude of about 12 and cannot be seen with the naked eye but is visible through a small telescope. ...
is a Sun-like star with a hot Jupiter about as massive as Jupiter that takes around 4.2 days to complete an orbit.
WASP-13 WASP-13, also named Gloas, is a star in the Lynx constellation. The star is similar, in terms of metallicity and mass, to the Sun, although it is hotter and most likely older. The star was first observed in 1997, according to the SIMBAD ...
, a Sun-like star that has begun to swell and cool off the main sequence, had a transiting planet discovered by the
SuperWASP WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisations performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to survey the entire sky, ...
program in 2009. The planet is around half as massive as Jupiter and takes 4.35 days to complete a revolution.


Deep-sky objects

Lynx's most notable
deep sky object A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object (such as Sun, Moon, planet, comet, etc.). The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed fa ...
is
NGC 2419 NGC 2419 (also known as Caldwell 25) is a globular cluster in the constellation Lynx. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 31, 1788. NGC 2419 is at a distance of about 300,000 light years from the Solar System and at the same dista ...
, also called the "Intergalactic Wanderer" as it was assumed to lie outside the
Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
. At a distance of between 275,000 and 300,000 light-years from Earth, it is one of the most distant known
globular cluster A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars. Globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of membe ...
s within our galaxy. NGC 2419 is likely in a highly elliptical orbit around the Milky Way. It has a magnitude of +9.06 and is a Shapley class VII cluster. Originally thought to be a star, NGC 2419 was discovered to be a globular cluster by American astronomer
Carl Lampland Carl Otto Lampland (December 29, 1873 – December 14, 1951) was an American astronomer. He was involved with both of the Lowell Observatory solar system projects, observations of the planet Mars and the search for Planet X. Biography ...
. NGC 2537, known as the Bear's Paw Galaxy, lies about 3 degrees north-northwest of 31 Lyncis. It is a
blue compact dwarf galaxy A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is so ...
that is somewhere between 17 and 30 million light-years away from Earth. Close by is IC 2233, a very flat and thin spiral galaxy that is between 26 and 40 million light-years away from Earth. A comparatively quiet galaxy with a low rate of star formation (less than one solar mass every twenty years), it was long suspected to be interacting with the Bear's Paw galaxy. This is now considered highly unlikely as observations with the
Very Large Array The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory located in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, ~ west of Socorro. The VLA comprises twent ...
showed the two galaxies lie at different distances. The NGC 2841 group is a
group of galaxies A galaxy group or group of galaxies (GrG) is an aggregation of galaxies comprising about 50 or fewer gravitationally bound members, each at least as luminous as the Milky Way (about 1010 times the luminosity of the Sun); collections of galaxies ...
that lie both in Lynx and neighbouring Ursa Major. It includes the loose triplet NGC 2541, NGC 2500, and NGC 2552 within Lynx. Using cepheids of NGC 2541 as standard candles, the distance to that galaxy (and the group) has been estimated at around 40 million light–years.
NGC 2841 NGC 2841 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered on 9 March 1788 by German-born astronomer William Herschel. J. L. E. Dreyer, the author of the ''New General Catalogue'', described ...
itself lies in Ursa Major. NGC 2770 is a type SASc spiral galaxy located about 88 million light–years away that has hosted
Type Ib supernova Type Ib and Type Ic supernovae are categories of supernovae that are caused by the stellar core collapse of massive stars. These stars have shed or been stripped of their outer envelope of hydrogen, and, when compared to the spectru ...
e: SN 1999eh, SN 2007uy, and SN 2008D. The last of these is famous for being the first supernova detected by the
X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10  picometers to 10  nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
s released very early on in its formation, rather than by the optical
light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...
emitted during later stages, which allowed the first moments of the outburst to be observed. It is possible that NGC 2770's interactions with a suspected companion galaxy may have created the massive stars causing this activity.
UGC 4904 UGC 4904 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Lynx, located about 77 million light-years from Earth. On October 20, 2004, a supernova impostor was observed by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki within the galaxy. This same star ...
is a galaxy located about 77 million light-years from Earth. On 20 October 2004, a
supernova impostor Supernova impostors are stellar explosions that appear at first to be a supernova but do not destroy their progenitor stars. As such, they are a class of extra-powerful novae. They are also known as Type V supernovae, Eta Carinae analogs, and gia ...
was observed by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki within the galaxy. Observations of its spectrum suggest that it shed massive amounts of material in a two-year period, transforming from a LBV star to a
Wolf–Rayet star Wolf–Rayet stars, often abbreviated as WR stars, are a rare heterogeneous set of stars with unusual spectra showing prominent broad emission lines of ionised helium and highly ionised nitrogen or carbon. The spectra indicate very high surface ...
, before it was observed erupting as
hypernova A hypernova (sometimes called a collapsar) is a very energetic supernova thought to result from an extreme core-collapse scenario. In this case, a massive star (>30 solar masses) collapses to form a rotating black hole emitting twin energetic je ...
SN 2006jc SN 2006jc was a supernova that was detected on October 9, 2006 in the galaxy UGC 4904, which is about 77 million light-years away in the constellation Lynx. It was first seen by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, American amateur Tim Pu ...
on October 11, 2006. APM 08279+5255 is a very distant, broad absorption line quasar discovered in 1998 and initially considered the most luminous object yet found. It is magnified and split into multiple images by the
gravitational lens A gravitational lens is a distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies) between a distant light source and an observer that is capable of bending the light from the source as the light travels toward the observer. This effect is known ...
ing effect of a foreground galaxy through which its light passes. It appears to be a giant
elliptical galaxy An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the four main classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hubble sequence and 1936 work ''The Real ...
with a
supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ob ...
around 23 billion times as massive as the Sun and an associated accretion disk that has a diameter of 3600 light years. The galaxy possesses large regions of hot dust and molecular gas, as well as regions with starburst activity. It has a cosmological redshift of 3.911. While observing the quasar in 2008, astronomers using ESA's
XMM Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second corner ...
and the
Large Binocular Telescope The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is an optical telescope for astronomy located on Mount Graham, in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, United States. It is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. When using both ...
(LBT) in Arizona discovered the huge galaxy cluster 2XMM J083026+524133. The Lynx Supercluster is a remote supercluster with a redshift of 1.26–1.27. It was the most distant supercluster known at the time of its discovery in 1999. It is made up of two main clusters of galaxies—RX J0849+4452 or Lynx E and RX J0848+4453 or Lynx W—and several smaller clumps. Further still lies the Lynx Arc, located around 12 billion light years away (a redshift of 3.357). It is a distant region containing a million extremely hot, young blue stars with surface temperatures of 80,000–100,000 K that are twice as hot as similar stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Only visible through gravitational lensing produced by a closer cluster of galaxies, the Arc is a feature of the early days of the universe, when "furious firestorms of star birth" were more common.


Meteor showers

The September Lyncids are a minor
meteor shower A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extre ...
that appears around 6 September. They were historically more prominent, described as such by Chinese observers in 1037 and 1063, and Korean astronomers in 1560. The Alpha Lyncids were discovered in 1971 by Malcolm Currie, and appear between 10 December and 3 January.


See also

* 88 modern constellations by area * Asterism (astronomy) *
List of constellations The following lists of constellations are available: * IAU designated constellations - a list of the current, or "modern", constellations. * Former constellations - a list of former constellations. * Chinese constellations - traditional Chinese ast ...
* Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * NGC 2798


Notes


References

Sources * *


External links


The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Lynx
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynx (Constellation) Northern constellations Constellations listed by Johannes Hevelius