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Sagitta is a dim but distinctive constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for 'arrow', and it should not be confused with the larger constellation Sagittarius, the archer. It was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. Although it dates from antiquity, Sagitta has no star brighter than 3rd magnitude and has the third-smallest area of any constellation. Gamma Sagittae is the constellation's brightest star, with an apparent magnitude of 3.47. Delta, Epsilon, Zeta and Theta Sagittae are each multiple stars whose components can be seen in small telescopes. Two star systems in Sagitta have Jupiter-like planets, while a third—15 Sagittae—has a brown dwarf companion. V Sagittae is a cataclysmic variable—a binary star system that is expected to go nova and briefly become one of the brightest stars in our sky around the year 2083. (Full article...)

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Mercy dog carrying a soldier's helmet (1918)

... that mercy dogs (example illustrated) were trained during World War I to comfort mortally wounded soldiers as they died in no man's land?
... that Pope Pius VI named Leonard Neale the coadjutor bishop of Baltimore in 1795, but Neale did not learn of this until 1800?
... that the Urdu novel Fasana-e-Azad consists of about 3,000 pages?
... that at the Schaubühne in Berlin, Jutta Lampe played Ophelia "as if in a trance", and male and female roles on a time voyage as the only actor in the premiere of Robert Wilson's Orlando?
... that the Cominform Resolution of 28 June 1948 publicly announced the Tito–Stalin split?
... that after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Montana abortion law in Mazurek v. Armstrong, state courts struck down the law as a violation of the Montana Constitution?
... that Canadian ethnomusicologist Judith R. Cohen dispels the myth that Judeo-Spanish songs have medieval origins and are unique to Sephardic Jews?
... that in The Trouble With Gravity, Richard Panek suggests that our universe's gravity originates in a parallel universe and is leaking into our own?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Protesters in front of the US Capitol

Rioters supporting Donald Trump storm the United States Capitol (pictured), disrupting certification of the presidential election and forcing Congress to evacuate.
In the United States, the Democratic Party wins control of the Senate, with victories in regular and special Senate elections in Georgia.
Saudi Arabia reopens its border with Qatar, ending a three-year diplomatic crisis.

On this day

January 8

Covent Garden Theatre

1697 – Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead became the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
1735 – George Frideric Handel's opera Ariodante premiered at the Covent Garden Theatre (pictured) in London.
1981 – In Trans-en-Provence, France, a local farmer reported a UFO sighting claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".
2011 – Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a public meeting held by U.S. representative Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people and injuring twelve others.

Kadi Burhan al-Din (b. 1345)
James Longstreet (b. 1821)
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (d. 1941)

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Lecrae

The discography of Lecrae, an American Christian hip hop artist, consists of ten studio albums, one of which was a collaborative; three mixtapes; one extended play; eighty-six singles, including forty-five as a featured performer; fifty-two music videos, including twenty-three as a featured performer; and eighty guest and other appearances. His studio albums consist of Real Talk (2004), After the Music Stops (2006), Rebel (2008), Rehab (2010), Rehab: The Overdose (2011), Gravity (2012), Anomaly (2014), All Things Work Together (2017), Let the Trap Say Amen (2018) – a collaborative album with Zaytoven, and Restoration (2020). His mixtapes consist of Church Clothes, Church Clothes 2, and Church Clothes 3. Gravity debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and Anomaly debuted at number one. As of February 2020, he has sold over three million albums. Anomaly is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, as are his singles "All I Need Is You" and "Blessings" (featuring Ty Dolla Sign). The single "I'll Find You" (featuring Tori Kelly) is certified platinum. (Full list...)

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Dallol is a cinder-cone volcano in the Danakil Depression, northeast of the Erta Ale Range in Ethiopia. The area lies up to 120 m (390 ft) below sea level, and has been repeatedly flooded in the past when waters from the Red Sea have inundated it. The Danakil Depression is one of the hottest places on Earth, and the evaporation of seawater after these flooding episodes produced thick deposits of salt, as seen in this landscape. The deposits at Dallol include significant quantities of the carbonate, sulfate and chloride salts of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Hot springs discharge brine to form the blueish ponds, and small, temporary geysers produce cones of salt.

Photograph credit: Alexander Savin

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