Starship Asterisk*

ha-ha, the last MooCoo clue kinda fits me. I'm almost saree i got involved with this riddle.

Oh! I don't have many clues left!

But MooCoo and AE are both intergalactic speedsters because they have both received a mighty kick.

So who delivered the kicks? Well, uh - It's hard to say precisely who, but but the place where it happened was something like this!

Ann

Gee, I'm starting to think about a couple of stars that sorta got kicked out of someplace, but i don't remember any particulars about the situation, except that they are traveling through space.
So IF that's right... that's as far as i can go with it.

Yes, I'm asking about two of those stars that got kicked out, and one in particular.

There are actually three stars that are particularly famous for having received a mighty kick by one process or other, so that they are now speeding through space. One of these stars is Zeta Ophiuchi, which you can see in the upper right corner of this picture, surrounded by some red nebulosity. Zeta Ophiuchi is not the star I'm asking about, though.

Ann

I'll have to leave the star names to those with a better space memory than i have. I don't think i could name them even with 20 clues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AE_Aurigae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Columbae

I have nothing else to contribute right now, it is so hot here in Germany, 36 °C, my brain refuses to work...

Moonlady wrote:I have nothing else to contribute right now, it is so hot here in Germany, 36 °C, my brain refuses to work...

Why Moonlady, that's not even as hot as you normally are. So you're still just a tad cooler on the outside, than on the inside.

Beyond wrote:

I agree, Beyond!

Moonlady, not only is your kitty adorably funny, but your own answers are perfectly correct! I'd post a "congratulations smiley" for you, but I have already used up my allotment of smileys in this post by quoting Beyond...

I thought I'd explain my clues, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_pr ... ek_letters wrote:

Μ μ, English name Mu, /ˈmjuː/, US less commonly /ˈmuː/

So Greek letter Mu can be pronounced mu: in American English. That must be the same pronunciation as "moo", the English name for the sounds that cows make.

What about "coo"? Well, "coo" is the sound that a dove makes! And the name Columba, as in constellation Columba, means "dove"! So Mu Columba can be thought of as a Moo-Coo, a cow-dove!

What about the clear air? Well, the fact is that Mu Columba is incredibly blue in color. Although Mu Columba is indeed a very hot star, other stars are even hotter and therefore presumably intrinsically bluer. But extremely few of them have a B-V index that can compete with Mu Columba. Sky Catalogue 2000.0, Volume 1, states that Mu Columba is the single bluest star (the one with the most negative B-V index) of all the 50,071 stars down to magnitude 8 that are listed there. To be so blue, Mu Columba must be extremely "unreddened", and if a star is so unreddened there must be remarkably little dust between the star and ourselves. Space is clear where Mu resides, apparently!

What about Mu Columba being a speedster, and what about its connection to AE Aurigae?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Columbae wrote:

Based on measurements of proper motion and radial velocity, astronomers know that this star and AE Aurigae are moving away from each other at a relative velocity of over 200 km/s.

So what and where and how did they get this kind of kick?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Columbae wrote:

Their common point of origin intersects with Iota Orionis in the Trapezium cluster, some two and half million years in the past. The most likely scenario that could have created these runaway stars is a collision between two binary star systems, with the stars being ejected along different trajectories radial to the point of intersection.

So Mu Columba and AE Aurigae were likely born very close to Iota Orionis. Mu Columba and AE Aurigae were members of binary pairs, and the gravitational pin-ball machine of this large cluster sent Mu and AE slingshotting out of their birthplace in opposite directions.

What about AE Aurigae being flaming and flamboyant? Well, Ae Aurigae, unlike Mu Columba, is just passing through an interstellar cloud of gas and dust, which it is lighting up gloriously and flamboyantly. The nebula it creates is called the Flaming Star Nebula.

And that would be all my clues, or so I think anyway!

Ann

Now you can give Moonlady her reward in a separate post, with lots of ice cubes, i think.

Here, have a drink, Moonlady!


Ann

Thank you, Ann!

Alpha Corona Borealis....

...is Superman's star!




(But Comet Schwassmann Wachmann has nothing to do with him.)

I know - it's a tricky one!

Ann

And Alpha Serpentis
is Batman's star.

It is even known as Unukalhai. (Alpha Serpentis, that is, not Batman.)

Ann

And Alpha Phoenicis
is Mickey Mouse's star!

(Phew! This is hard!)

Ann

And HD 75289, not necessarily B, is Nelson Mandela's star.



Okay, I'm done for tonight!

Good night!

Ann

So which one is Shakespeare's star?

It could, just possibly, be Betelgeuse. But I wouldn't bet my home on it.

Ann

So... you're attaching certain stars to certain people or characters. o-o-o-o-o-o-k. And to think that you said (Phew! This is hard). You ought to see it from this end

I've been looking and looking and looking for Margarita's star! I can't find it. It's not Alpha Caeli, and it's not Nu2 Canis Majoris, but something in between! But I can't find this star that is in between.

















Ann

My own star is 58 Ophiuchi! What a fitting name! Of course I couldn't find a picture of it, not even in this map of Ophiuchus.


Ann

Moonlady, I'm not sure... but HD 85512 could be your star. If so, you've got a super-Earth too!


Ann

Let me say that you get to keep your stars for one year only! These are your 2013 stars! Then they aren't yours anymore.

Ann

Ann wrote:My own star is 58 Ophiuchi! What a fitting name! Of course I couldn't find a picture of it, not even in this map of Ophiuchus.

Say... wasn't the death of Death cancelled

Beyond wrote:

Ann wrote:My own star is 58 Ophiuchi! What a fitting name! Of course I couldn't find a picture of it, not even in this map of Ophiuchus.

Say... wasn't the death of Death cancelled

Anyway, Beyond, I'd like to find your star, but I'm afraid I don't have the facts about you that I need to find your star!

But I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone here whose star is Aldebaran. A word of caution, however: a crucial piece of information about Aldebaran (which makes it possible to say if it is your star or not) is incorrect in the picture here. The correct information about Aldebaran is here - have fun reading it!

Ann

Ann wrote:Anyway, Beyond, I'd like to find your star, but I'm afraid I don't have the facts about you that I need to find your star!

Now i get to give you a clue, if you can see it, but you'd better not take to long, because the clue is Sagittarius A.