An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The brightest star in → Aquila (apparent visual magnitude 0.77), and the twelfth brightest star in the sky. Altair is a whitish A7 → main sequence star. It has one of the fastest known rotational speeds, 242 km/s at the equator, compared with the Sun's about 2 km/s.

Altair, from Ar. An Nasr at-Taiir "The Flying Vulture," from Nasr "vulture" + Ta'ir "flying."

Karkas-e Parandé "The Flying Vulture" coined by Biruni (around A.D. 1000), from karkas "vulture," Av. kahrkâsa- "devourer hen," from *kahrka "hen" (Mod.Pers. kark "hen," karak "quail") + *âsa "to eat" (Mod.Pers. âš "food, soup") + Parandé "flying," from paridan "to fly" (from Mid./Mod.Pers. par(r) "feather, wing," Av. parəna- "feather, wing;" cp. Skt. parna "feather," E. fern; PIE *porno- "feather").

The Eagle. A constellation on the celestial equator representing an eagle (R.A. about 19h30, Dec. about +5 deg). It is marked by the bright star → Altair (α Aquilae). Abbreviation: Aql, genitive form: Aquilae.

L. aquila "black eagle," fem. of aquilus "dark colored" (bird).

Šâhin "eagle," Av. saêna- "eagle," Skt. śyená- "eagle, falcon, hawk".

A long, dark structure located close to the → Galactic plane and occupying an area between longitudes l ~15° and ~35° and latitudes b ± 10° in the constellations Aquila, Serpens, and eastern Ophiuchus. The Aquila Rift is a complex of dust and → molecular clouds making part of → Gould's Belt in the → Orion Arm. The mass of the molecular gas, derived from → carbon monoxide (CO) observations (Dame et al. 2001, ApJ 547, 792), is in the range ~ 1-3 x 10⁵ → solar masses. A distance of ~260 pc has been estimated for the Aquila Rift, but it is uncertain. Recent Herschel observations have revealed a filamentary structure in the Aquila Rift and the presence of a population of → pre-stellar cores as well as → young stellar objects (André et al. 2010, A&A 518, L102; Bontemps et al. 2010, A&A 518, L85; Könyves et al. 2010, A&A 518, L106).

→ Aquila; → rift.