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LUPUS
The Wolf
Centaurus and Lupus - Uranometria by Johann Bayer - 1603
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Lupus, the wolf, is sometimes known as The Victim, as the hapless animal is traditionally shown on its back, being skewered by Chiron, the Centaur, otherwise known as the constellation Centaurus, with which it is invariably connected. To the ancient Greeks, it was known as Therium, to the Romans, Bestia, both terms simply meaning the beast. It was ultimately identified as a wolf by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy.
Despite its unfortunate circumstances, Lupus is home to several deep sky wonders. The most famous of these is SN 1006, the brightest supernova ever seen. It occurred on May 1, 1006, and was seen all over the world, from China to Europe. With the sole exception of the Moon, it was brighter than anything else in the sky, including the brilliant planet Venus. It was visible during the day for several weeks, and visible to the naked eye for more than two years before finally fading away. A thousand years later, we are left with a spectacular expanding cloud of gas, known as a supernova remnant. On its 1000 year anniversary, in 2006, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a segment of the nebula's outside shell in unprecedented detail.
The Hubble Space Telescope also captured a stunning view of the plantary nebula NGC 5882. Although it appears as a planetary disk through the lens of a small telescope, Hubble reveals the nebula's true nature as an expanding cloud of gas given off by the death throes of a star similar to our Sun.
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