Starship Asterisk*

http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/index.html wrote:
Cyborg Beetles

Tiny flying robots that are part machine and part insect may one day save lives in wars and disasters.

Ann wrote:
Fly, you know you are located south of the Southern Cross and there you are called Musca,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musca wrote:
<<Musca (Latin: fly) is one of the minor southern constellations. The constellation was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and it first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Petrus Plancius and Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603. Musca, under its original name Apis – the Bee, was introduced in the late 16th century by Petrus Plancius to fill the previously uncharted area around the southern pole and to provide nourishment for the nearby constellation Chamaeleon (17th-century celestial maps clearly show the chameleon's tongue trying to catch the insect). In 1752 Nicolas Louis de Lacaille renamed it to Musca Australis, the Southern Fly – Australis, since it counterparted the now discarded constellation of Musca Borealis composed of a few stars in Aries, and to avoid confusion with Apus. Today the name is simply Musca.

The soft X-ray transient Nova Muscae 1991 is a binary object consisting of a star and a black hole. During the 1991 outburst which led to its discovery, radiation was produced through a process of positron annihilation. Musca also contains the unusual planetary nebula NGC 5189, located about 3,000 light years from earth. Its uniquely complex structure resembles a miniature crab nebula. Also within the constellation is the Hourglass Nebula (MyCn 18) at a distance of about 8,000 light years. The comparatively old globular cluster NGC 4833 near Delta Muscae is 21,200 light years distant and somewhat obscured by dust clouds near the galactic plane. The globular cluster NGC 4372 near Gamma Muscae is fainter and likewise partially obscured by dust, but spans more arc minutes.>>

Neufer wrote:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010502.html

Ann wrote:

Neufer wrote:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010502.html

Wow!!! There's a B-type star in Musca having li'l planet babies!!!

Ann wrote:KR Muscae! Spectral type B9V! 19 times the luminosity of the Sun! 337 light-years away! And it's forming planets!

Hey, blue fly on my wall, didya know that yer havin' chillun down thar in Australia? In the Australis part of the sky? Huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoo_Fly,_Don%27t_Bother_Me wrote:
<<Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me! was most likely written by T. Brigham Bishop and first published in 1869 by White, Smith & Perry. It has remained popular since that time. Today, it is commonly sung by children, and has been recorded on many children’s records. The original song was published as "Shew! Fly, Don't Bother Me. Comic Song and Dance or Walk Round. Sung by Cool Burgess and Rollin Howard, melody by Frank Campbell, words by Billy Reeves, arr. by Rollin Howard." The song remained popular over the decades, and was commonly sung by soldiers during the Spanish-American War of 1898, when flies and the yellow fever mosquito were a serious enemy.>>

• Shew! fly, don't bother me,
  Shew! fly, don't bother me,
  Shew! fly, don't bother me,
  I belong to Comp'ny G.
  
  I feel, I feel, I feel,
  I feel like a morning star,
  
  I feel, I feel, I feel,
  I feel like a morning star.
  
  I feel, I feel, I feel,
  I feel like a morning star.
  
  I feel, I feel, I feel,
  I feel like a morning star.

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

<<Chamaeleon is a small constellation in the southern sky. It is named after the chameleon, a form of lizard. It was first defined in the 16th century. In Australia it is sometimes unofficially called "the Frying Pan" when finding south by the stars.

Chamaeleon was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. It first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603.

In 1999, a nearby open cluster was discovered centered on the star η Chamaeleontis. The cluster, known as either the Eta Chamaeleontis cluster or Mamajek 1, is 8 million years old, and lies 316 light years from Earth.

The constellation contains a number of molecular clouds (the Chamaeleon dark clouds) that are forming low-mass T Tauri stars. The cloud complex lies some 400 to 600 light years from Earth, and contains tens of thousands of solar masses of gas and dust. The most prominent cluster of T Tauri stars and young B-type stars are in the Chamaeleon I cloud, and are associated with the reflection nebula IC 2631.

This is a ROSAT false-color image in X-rays between
500 eV and 1.1 keV of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud.
The contours are 100 µm emission from dust
measured by the IRAS satellite. Credit: D Burrows,
J Mendenhall, and E Feigelson Penn State University
using the US/German ROSAT satellite.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070811.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020609.html

The Chamaeleon complex is a large star forming region (SFR) that includes the Chamaeleon I, Chamaeleon II, and Chamaeleon III dark clouds. It occupies nearly all of the constellation and overlaps into Apus, Musca, and Carina. The mean density of X-ray sources is about one source per square degree.

The Chamaeleon I (Cha I) cloud is one of the nearest active star formation regions at ~160 pc. It is relatively isolated from other star-forming clouds, so it is unlikely that older pre-main sequence (PMS) stars have drifted into the field. The total stellar population is 200-300. The Cha I cloud is further divided into the North cloud or region and South cloud or main cloud.

HD 97300 emits X-rays, illuminates the reflection nebula Ced 112 and is one of the highest mass members of the Cha I cloud, spectral type B9V, a Herbig Ae/Be star without emission lines. Cha Halpha 1 is an M8 object in the Chamaeleon I dark cloud that was determined in 1998 to be an X-ray source and as such is the first X-ray emitting brown dwarf found. There are some seventy to ninety X-ray sources in the Chamaeleon I star forming region. The Uhuru X-ray source (4U 1119-77) is within the Chamaeleon I cloud. This cloud contains both "weak" T Tauri (WTT) stars and "classical" T Tauri (CTT) stars.

The Chamaeleon I dark cloud was observed with the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) on board the Einstein Observatory for 2.5 h on January 23–24, 1981, identifying some 22 X-ray sources. Chamaeleon II contains the Uhuru source at 4U 1302-77. Chamaeleon III appears to be devoid of current star-formation activity.>>

Neufer wrote:

The most prominent cluster of T Tauri stars and young B-type stars are in the Chamaeleon I cloud, and are associated with the reflection nebula IC 2631.