Scuti

Scuti is the genitive form of the Latin constellation name Scutum, meaning “of the shield.” In astronomy, Scuti appears in the names of stars that lie in Scutum, such as Alpha Scuti, Beta Scuti, and Delta Scuti. The term is also widely used in reference to the Delta Scuti variable star class, whose name derives from the prototype star Delta Scuti.

The constellation Scutum is a relatively small and faint constellation in the southern sky. It represents a shield and was introduced to the International Astronomical Union in the 17th century by Johannes Hevelius as Scutum Sobiescianum to honor King John III Sobieski of Poland. The area is part of the Milky Way’s rich stellar crowd, containing numerous stars and several variable stars. Within Scutum, Delta Scuti stands out as the archetype of its class: short-period pulsating variables of spectral types roughly A2 to F5. Delta Scuti-type variables typically show multi-periodic pulsations with periods ranging from about 0.03 to 0.3 days and amplitudes up to nearly a magnitude in visible light, making them valuable for asteroseismology.

In common usage, Scuti appears primarily in stellar designations and catalogs rather than as a separate object. The term reflects the broader Latin-naming tradition used to identify stars by their constellation of origin and, in some cases, to name variable-star types associated with that constellation.