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COLUMBA
The Dove
Columba - Celestial Atlas by Alexander Jamieson - 1822
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Columba was first introduced as a constellation by Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius in 1592. Originally named Columba Noachi, meaning Noah's Dove, it was meant to represent the dove that left Noah's Ark to look for dry land, and returned with an olive branch in its beak to signify the end of the Flood.
Alpha columbae is named Phaet, from the Arabic "Al Fakhita", the dove. Beta columbae is named Wzen, meaning weight. Delta columbae is sometimes named as Ghusm as Zaitun, the olive branch.
Mu columbae does not have a name, but is well known as a runaway star that is moving at a much higher speed and in a different direction than the surrounding stars. It is moving in direct opposition to the star AE Aurigae in the constellation Auriga at a speed of 200 kilometers per second. The origins of both these stars can be traced back to the Great Orion Nebula, where interactions between binary systems or perhaps a supernova explosion caused the stars to be ejected from the nebula.
Columba also contains the bright spiral galaxy NGC 1792, with a magnitude of 10.7, 50 million light years away. It is known as the Starburst Galaxy because of the rapid rate of new star formation within it.
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