50 Fun Facts About Sagittarius

What weapon does Sagittarius wield in the sky?

The Latin name means archer, and the Greeks called the sign Toxotes, which means the same.

Sagittarius is which sign in the order of the zodiac?

It spans the 240th to 270th degree, ending at the December solstice point.

Which planet rules Sagittarius?

Jupiter classically also ruled Pisces, before Neptune was assigned there in the 20th century.

Sagittarius belongs to which element?

With Aries and Leo it forms the Fire Trigon.

What is the modality of Sagittarius?

It is the fourth mutable sign after Pisces, Gemini and Virgo, closing out autumn.

Which sign is opposite Sagittarius on the zodiac wheel?

Both are mutable signs; the twins face the archer across the chart.

Under the tropical zodiac the Sun is in Sagittarius between roughly which dates?

The Sun does not reach the actual constellation until around December 18.

Astronomically, when does the Sun really cross the constellation Sagittarius (as of 2002)?

Sidereal astrologers, who follow the stars, put the sign from December 16 to January 14.

Because the archer never misses, which professions were traditionally said to be born under Sagittarius?

The unfailing arrow was read as a symbol of prophecy.

Shown as a centaur, Sagittarius is classified by astrologers as what kind of sign?

The distinction is old, but the sources admit it makes no practical difference to a reading.

Sagittarius belongs to which polarity group?

The odd-numbered fire and air signs are the positive ones.

What lies in the westernmost part of the constellation Sagittarius?

That is why the constellation is so crowded with clusters and nebulae.

The brighter stars of Sagittarius form what well-known asterism?

The Milky Way rises above its spout like steam from a kettle.

What did the stars of the famous kettle-shaped asterism originally represent?

Kaus Media, Kaus Borealis and Kaus Australis are the middle, north and south of the bow.

At which bright star of neighbouring Scorpius does Sagittarius aim its arrow?

He stands ready to avenge Orion, or to defend Hercules, should the scorpion ever attack.

What does Alnasl, the name of Gamma2 Sagittarii at the tip of the kettle's spout, mean?

The line from Kaus Media through Alnasl runs almost straight to Antares.

Which star is the brightest in Sagittarius, despite not carrying the 'alpha' designation?

Alpha Sagittarii, Rukbat, is a dim magnitude 3.96, roughly seven times fainter.

What does Rukbat, the name of Alpha Sagittarii, mean?

Beta Sagittarii, at the centaur's forelegs, is Arkab, the 'Achilles tendon'.

The star Nunki is thought to be named after which sacred Babylonian city, possibly the oldest star name in use?

Eridu on the Euphrates was, in Sumerian tradition, the first city ever built.

Sagittarius A*, at the heart of the Milky Way, is what kind of object?

Its mass is about 4.3 million Suns, packed into a region smaller than Mercury's orbit.

Roughly what mass for Sagittarius A* did star-orbit measurements give by 2022?

It was pinned down by tracking stars such as S2 whipping around it on tight orbits.

In which year did the Event Horizon Telescope release the first image of Sagittarius A*?

It was the second black hole ever imaged, after M87's in 2019.

Which two astronomers shared the 2020 Physics Nobel for showing Sagittarius A* is a supermassive compact object?

Roger Penrose took the other half of the prize for proving black holes follow from general relativity.

Sagittarius A* was discovered in 1974 by Robert Brown and which colleague?

Brown added the asterisk in 1982 to mark the compact source inside the larger Sagittarius A.

Which object in Sagittarius, Messier 8, has a central region called the Hourglass?

Bart Bok studied its photographs in 1947 and predicted the dark 'Bok globules' that turned out to hold protostars.

Messier 20 in Sagittarius is named for its three lobes split by dark bands. What is it called?

Its outer parts glow blue by reflection while the interior is pink emission, lit by a central triple star.

Messier 17 in Sagittarius is also known by which bird nickname?

Observers have also seen a horseshoe, a checkmark, a loon and a curl of smoke.

What is Messier 24, a bright 2.5-magnitude patch of the Milky Way, better known as?

It is not a cluster but a clear line of sight through the galaxy 10,000 to 16,000 light-years deep.

Baade's Window in Sagittarius is valued by astronomers because it has very little what?

It lets telescopes see globular clusters close to the galactic core that would otherwise be hidden.

Which space probe was travelling in front of Sagittarius as seen from Earth as of 2016?

It will run out of power long before it comes near any star.

The famous 'Wow!' radio signal of 1977 appeared to come from the direction of which constellation?

Jerry Ehman circled the reading 6EQUJ5 on a printout and wrote 'Wow!' beside it; it has never repeated.

Which telescope detected the Wow! signal?

The signal lasted the full 72 seconds the telescope could watch that patch of sky.

The Babylonians identified Sagittarius with which god, shown as a winged, two-headed centaur-like archer?

The figure had a panther head beside its human one and a scorpion's stinger over its horse's tail.

What was the Sumerian name for the constellation, translatable as 'Forefather' or 'Chief Ancestor'?

The name joins Pabil, 'elder paternal kinsman', to Sag, 'chief'.

In Greek myth Sagittarius is usually a centaur: half human and half what?

The Greeks argued about which centaur it was, and Eratosthenes said it was really a satyr.

Which wise centaur, tutor of Jason and Achilles, is one candidate for the archer in the sky?

Others put Chiron in the constellation Centaurus and say he invented Sagittarius to guide the Argonauts.

Eratosthenes said the archer was not a centaur but which satyr, son of Pan?

He lived among the Muses, who asked Zeus to place him in the sky.

The wisest of the centaurs, tutor of heroes, was the son of the Titan Cronus and which Oceanid?

Cronus took horse form to hide from his wife Rhea, which is why his son was half horse.

Which god of doctors was raised and taught healing by the wise centaur?

Asclepius grew so skilled he raised the dead, and Zeus killed him for it.

The wise centaur was fatally wounded by an arrow tipped with the blood of which monster?

Being immortal he could not die, so he gave up his immortality, which let Zeus free Prometheus.

Whose release from punishment was made possible by the wise centaur surrendering his immortality?

Heracles brokered the exchange with Zeus.

Sagittarius marks the Sun's position at which annual event?

In classical antiquity that honour belonged to Capricorn; by around AD 2700 it will pass to Scorpius.

Bayer Latinised Ptolemy's four-star 'quadrilateral' asterism in Sagittarius as what?

In Chinese astronomy the same stars are Gouguo, the 'land of dogs'.

Which gemstone is the traditional December birthstone, covering most of Sagittarius season?

It also sits in the breastplate of the Jewish High Priest described in Exodus.

Between which constellations does Sagittarius lie?

Ophiuchus also touches it to the west and tiny Microscopium to the east.

North of which latitude does Sagittarius either hug the southern horizon or fail to rise at all?

From most of the southern hemisphere it passes nearly overhead instead.

Which two signs join Sagittarius in astrology's Fire Trigon?

Sagittarius is also the fourth of the mutable signs, after Pisces, Gemini and Virgo.

Which second-century astronomer listed Sagittarius among his 48 constellations?

It remains one of the 88 modern constellations and its name is simply Latin for 'archer'.

Which dense Milky Way region looks like steam rising from the spout of the Teapot asterism?

Under dark skies it arcs north-west above the spout; the smaller Messier 24 cloud lies nearby at magnitude 2.5.

Who discovered the Omega Nebula in Sagittarius in 1746?

Also called the Horseshoe or Swan Nebula, it shines at magnitude 6.0 from about 4,890 light-years away.