Southern Cross: Crux constellation, stars and mythology
. The Southern Cross is not the entire region of the sky that makes up Crux, but rather just the four stars that make its iconic cross shape: That's what makes it an asterism. The Southern Cross is made up of four or five stars, depending on who you ask. The four main stars, according to
, are Acrux , Mimosa , Gacrux and Imai . Acrux is the southernmost star, while Gacrux is the farthest north. Mimosa and Imai form the crossbeam.Brazil's national flag shows the Southern Cross in reverse compared to the stars on Australia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand's flags. That's because, according to , the Brazilian flag shows the stars across the Southern Hemisphere in a mirror image.
The fifth brightest star in the Crux constellation, Ginan , is included in some depictions of the Southern Cross: for example, the national flags of Australia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Brazil. Ginan appears in the space between Imai and Acrux, not as part of the main cross formation. It's left off of the national flag of New Zealand, which features only the four brightest stars of the cross.
Alpha, beta and delta Crucius — also known as Acrux, Mimosa and Imai — likely share a common origin, wrote Constellation Guide, as they are all made up of massive, hot-burning B-typeAcrux, the brightest and southernmost star in the Southern Cross, is the 13th-brightest star in the night sky with a
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