Sagittarius (constellation)
Sagittarius is one of the constellations of the zodiac and is located in the Southern celestial hemisphere. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Its old astronomical symbol is .svg){kind=small}
(♐︎). Its name is Latin for "archer". Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur drawing a bow. It lies between Scorpius and Ophiuchus to the west and Capricornus and Microscopium to the east.
Abbreviation
Sgr
Sagittarii
/ˌsædʒɪˈtɛəriəs/,
genitive /-iaɪ/
the Archer
19h
−25°
SQ4
867 sq. deg. (15th)
12, 8
68
32
7
3
15
The center of the Milky Way lies in the westernmost part of Sagittarius (see Sagittarius A).
Exploration[edit]
The space probe New Horizons is moving on a trajectory out of the Solar System as of 2016 that places the probe in front of Sagittarius as seen from the Earth.[27] New Horizons will exhaust its radioisotope thermoelectric generator long before it reaches any other stars.
The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal that appeared to have come from the direction of Sagittarius.[28]