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Sextans

[ sek-stuhnz ]

noun

, genitive Sex·tan·tis [sek-, stan, -tis]
  1. Astronomy. the Sextant, an equatorial constellation between Hydra and Leo.
  2. (lowercase) a bronze coin of ancient Rome, the sixth part of an as, issued during the period of the Republic.


Sextans

/ ˈsɛkstənz /

noun

  1. a faint constellation lying on the celestial equator close to Leo and Hydra
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of Sextans1

< Latin sextāns; sextant
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Word History and Origins

Origin of Sextans1

New Latin: sextant
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Example Sentences

In the Sextans constellation 4,500 light-years away, a dead, magnetic star rotates 592 times in a second, emanating electromagnetic beams like an oscillating lighthouse out into the universe.

From Salon

Researchers in Japan observed a distant source of light known as B14-65666, located in the constellation known as Sextans, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of telescopes in Chile.

The Sextans Dwarf Spheroidal was the 10th galaxy found to orbit the Milky Way.

A dwarf spheroidal flagged in 1990 in the constellation Sextans was such a galactic underdog it took a computer to spot it.

Without one, “there’s no way Sextans would have been found,” Mike Irwin, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, has said.

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