The Mythology
"The phoenix is a long-lived bird associated with Greek mythology (with analogs in many cultures) that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. Some legends say it dies in a show of flames and combustion, others that it simply dies and decomposes before being born again."
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The Sculpture
The sculpture was commissioned by Leeds City Council when a new business park was created on the site of a former coal mine. It is intended to symbolise new business rising from the ashes of the old.
The half-tonne bird is the creation of Huddersfield artist and blacksmith Julian Wadsworth.
Finished in shining nickle plate, the six foot tall sculpture took three months to construct. Made of sections of forged steel welded together, the mythical bird was created by Julian in his Holme Mills workshop.
Phoenix Constellation
"Phoenix is a minor constellation in the southern sky. Named after the mythical phoenix, it was first depicted on a celestial atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted the brighter stars and gave their Bayer designations in 1756. The constellation stretches from roughly -39° to -57° declination, and from 23.5h to 2.5h of right ascension. The constellations Phoenix, Grus, Pavo and Tucana, are known as the Southern Birds.
The brightest star, Alpha Phoenicis, is named Ankaa, an Arabic word meaning 'the Phoenix'. It is an orange giant of apparent magnitude 2.4. Next is Beta Phoenicis, actually a binary system composed of two yellow giants with a combined apparent magnitude of 3.3. Nu Phoenicis has a dust disk, while the constellation has ten star systems with known planets and the recently discovered galaxy clusters El Gordo and the Phoenix Cluster—located 7.2 and 5.7 billion light years away respectively, two of the largest objects in the visible universe. Phoenix is the radiant of two annual meteor showers: the Phoenicids in December, and the July Phoenicids.
History
Phoenix was the largest of the twelve constellations established 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 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603. De Houtman included it in his southern star catalog the same year under the Dutch name Den voghel Fenicx, 'The Bird Phoenix', symbolising the phoenix of classical mythology. One name of the brightest star Alpha Phoenicis—Ankaa—is derived from the Arabic al-‘anqa’ 'the phoenix'
Celestial historian Richard Allen noted that unlike the other constellations introduced by Plancius and La Caille, Phoenix has actual precedent in ancient astronomy, as the Arabs saw this formation as representing young ostriches, Al Ri'al, or as a griffin or eagle. In addition, the s'the introduction of a Phoenix into modern astronomy was, in a measure, by adoption rather than by invention.'
The Chinese incorporated Phoenix's brightest star, Ankaa (Alpha Phoenicis), and stars from the adjacent constellation Sculptor to depict Bakui, a net for catching birds. Phoenix and the neighbouring constellation of Grus together were seen by Julius Schiller as portraying Aaron the High Priest. These two constellations, along with nearby Pavo and Tucana, are called the Southern Birds."
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Galaxy Cluster Phoenix
"The Phoenix Cluster (SPT-CL J2344-4243) is a massive, type I galaxy cluster located at its namesake constellation, the southern constellation of Phoenix. It was initially detected in 2010 using the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect by the South Pole Telescope collaboration.
It is one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, with the mass on the order of 2×1015 M?.] Most of the mass of the Phoenix Cluster is in the form of dark matter and its intracluster medium. The vast stellar halo of the Phoenix Cluster central galaxy extends to over 1.1 million light years from the center, making it one of the largest galaxies known. It is 22 times the diameter of our galaxy, and its starburst activity suggests that the galaxy is still growing larger.
The Phoenix Cluster is also producing more X-rays than any other known massive cluster.
Central galaxy
The central elliptical cD galaxy of this cluster hosts an active galactic nucleus, which is powered by a central supermassive black hole. The central black hole has an estimated mass on the order of 20 billion M?. This makes it one of the most massive black holes known in the universe, 5,000 times the mass of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The diameter of the black hole's immense event horizon is on the order of 118 billion kilometers, 19 times the distance from the Sun to Pluto, and has the mass equivalent to that of two dwarf galaxies. The central black hole is devouring matter and growing at a rate of 60 M? every year.
The galaxy contains vast amounts of hot gas. More normal matter is present there than the total of all the other galaxies in the cluster. Data from observations indicate that hot gas is cooling in the central regions at a rate of 3,820 solar masses per year, the highest ever recorded.
It is also undergoing a massive starburst, the highest recorded in the middle of a galaxy cluster, although other galaxies at higher redshifts have a higher starburst rate. (see Baby Boom Galaxy) Observations by a variety of telescopes including the GALEX and Herschel space telescopes shows that it has been converting the material to stars at an exceptionally high rate of 740 M? per year. This is considerably higher than that of NGC 1275 A, the central galaxy of the Perseus Cluster, where stars are formed at a rate around 20 times lower, or the one per year rate of star formation in the Milky Way."
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