The constellation of Lynx, the Lynx // E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Click below for some information about this very dim constellation as well as its named stars!
Lynx, a constellation named after the animal of the same name, is a recent addition to the night skies. It was added by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in the late 1600s. He actually named it Lynx because of its faintness, challenging that only the "lynx-eyed" would be able to recognize it. Can you easily spot it without the annotated image?
There are few named stars in this constellation, but in order of brightness, they are:
Alsciaukat (31 Lyncis), an orange giant star about 380 light years away. Its name comes from the Arabic word aš-šawkat meaning "the thorn."
Stribor (HD 75898) is a yellow-white giant star about 255 light years away. Its name refers to the god of winds in Slavic mythology, sometimes called Stribog (Стрибог in Russian). It has one planet orbiting it, a gas gianta bout 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter, named Veles, a god of the underworld in Slavic mythology (Велес in Russian).
Gloas (WASP-13), a yellow-white Sun-like star about 753 light years away. Its name is the Manx word meaning "to shine." It has one exoplanet orbiting it, about half the mass of Jupiter, named Cruinlagh, another Manx word meaning "to orbit."
Koit (XO-4) is a yellow-white giant star about 863 light years away. Its name is Estonian for "dawn." It has a planet orbiting it, about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter, named Hämarik, an Estonian word meaning "dusk."
Absolutno (XO-5) is a yellow-orange giant star about 893 light years away. Its name comes from the Czech sci-fi novel Továrna na absolutno ("The Factory for the Absolute"). It has a planet orbiting it, about 1.2 times the mass of Jupiter, named Makropulos, named after the play Věc Makropulos ("The Makropulos Affair").
Finally, just a word about Lynx's third-brightest star, 10 Ursae Majoris. Despite the name, it does belong to the constellation of Lynx. John Flamsteed, England's first Astronomer Royal, wrongly calculated the position of this star and thought it was in Ursa Major, not Lynx.
