Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Southern Celestial Hemisphere The southern celestial hemisphere, also called the Southern Sky, is the southern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies south of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere, on which seemingly fixed stars form constellations, appears ...

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

air pump An air pump is a pump for pushing air. Examples include a bicycle pump, pumps that are used to aerate an aquarium or a pond via an airstone; a gas compressor used to power a pneumatic tool, air horn or pipe organ; a bellows used to encourage ...

Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a kingdom of France, French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the IAU designated constellations, 88 constellations. From 1750 ...

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wor ...

Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of the 48 Ptolemy's constellations, now a grouping of three IAU constellations. It is formerly a single large constellation in the southern sky. The genitive is "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". ...

Alpha Antliae Alpha Antliae (Alpha Ant, α Antliae, α Ant) is the brightest star in the constellation of Antlia but it has not been given a proper name. It is approximately 320 light-years from the Solar System. It is a K-type gi ...

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

S Antliae S Antliae is a W Ursae Majoris-type eclipsing binary star in Antlia. Characteristics S Antilia is classed as an A-type W Ursae Majoris variable, since the primary is hotter than the secondary and the drop in magnitude is caused by the la ...

eclipsing binary A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

common envelope In astronomy, a common envelope (CE) is gas that contains a binary star system. The gas does not rotate at the same rate as the embedded binary system. A system with such a configuration is said to be in a common envelope phase or undergoing commo ...

HD 93083 HD 93083 is an orange-hued star in the southern constellation of Antlia. It has the proper name Macondo, after the mythical village of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad). The name was selected by Colombia duri ...

WASP-66 WASP-66, also known as TYC 7193-1804-1, is an F-type star in the constellation Antlia. It has an apparent magnitude of 11.6, which is much too faint to be seen with the unaided eye and is located at a distance of . WASP-66 has a classifi ...

NGC 2997 NGC 2997 is a face-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the faint southern constellation of Antlia. It was discovered March 4, 1793 by German-born astronomer William Herschel. John Louis Emil Dreyer, J. L. E. Dreyer ...

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''Antlia Dwarf Galaxy.

History

The French astronomer

Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a kingdom of France, French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the IAU designated constellations, 88 constellations. From 1750 ...

first described the constellation in French as ''la Machine Pneumatique'' (the Pneumatic Machine) in 1751–52, commemorating the

air pump An air pump is a pump for pushing air. Examples include a bicycle pump, pumps that are used to aerate an aquarium or a pond via an airstone; a gas compressor used to power a pneumatic tool, air horn or pipe organ; a bellows used to encourage ...

invented by the French physicist

Denis Papin Denis Papin FRS (; 22 August 1647 – 26 August 1713) was a French physicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the pressure cooker and of the steam engine. Early lif ...

. De Lacaille had observed and catalogued almost 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

, devising fourteen new constellations in uncharted regions of the

Southern Celestial Hemisphere The southern celestial hemisphere, also called the Southern Sky, is the southern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies south of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere, on which seemingly fixed stars form constellations, appears ...

not visible from Europe. He named all but one in honour of instruments that symbolised the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

. Lacaille depicted Antlia as a single-cylinder vacuum pump used in Papin's initial experiments, while German astronomer Johann Bode chose the more advanced double-cylinder version. Lacaille

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

ised the name to ''Antlia pneumatica'' on his 1763 chart. English astronomer

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wor ...

proposed shrinking the name to one word in 1844, noting that Lacaille himself had abbreviated his constellations thus on occasion. This was universally adopted. The

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

adopted it as one of the

88 modern constellations In contemporary astronomy, 88 constellations are recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Each constellation is a region of the sky, bordered by arcs of right ascension and declination. Together they cover the celestial sphere ...

in 1922. Although visible to the

Ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cultu ...

, Antlia's stars were too faint to have been commonly recognised as a figurative object, or part of one, in ancient asterisms. The stars that now comprise Antlia are in a zone of the sky associated with the asterism/old constellation

Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of the 48 Ptolemy's constellations, now a grouping of three IAU constellations. It is formerly a single large constellation in the southern sky. The genitive is "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". ...

, the ship, ''the Argo'', of the Argonauts, in its latter centuries. This, due to its immense size, was split into hull, poop deck and sails by Lacaille in 1763. Ridpath reports that due to their faintness, the stars of Antlia did not make up part of the classical depiction of Argo Navis.

In non-Western astronomy

Chinese astronomers Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The Ancient China, ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categoriz ...

were able to view what is modern Antlia from their latitudes, and incorporated its stars into two different constellations. Several stars in the southern part of Antlia were a portion of "''Dong'ou''", which represented an area in southern China. Furthermore,

Epsilon Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or lunate ; el, έψιλον) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was der ...

,

Eta Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

, and

Theta Antliae Theta Antliae (θ Ant, θ Antliae) is the Bayer designation for a binary star in the southern constellation of Antlia. The pair have a combined apparent visual magnitude of +4.78; the brighter component is magnitude +5.30 while the second ...

were incorporated into the celestial temple, which also contained stars from modern

Pyxis Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky. Abbreviated from Pyxis Nautica, its name is Latin for a mariner's compass (contrasting with Circinus, which represents a draftsman's compasses). Pyxis was introduced by Nicolas-Lo ...

.

Characteristics

Covering 238.9 square degrees and hence 0.579% of the sky, Antlia ranks 62nd of the

88 modern constellations In contemporary astronomy, 88 constellations are recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Each constellation is a region of the sky, bordered by arcs of right ascension and declination. Together they cover the celestial sphere ...

by area. Its position in the

Southern Celestial Hemisphere The southern celestial hemisphere, also called the Southern Sky, is the southern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies south of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere, on which seemingly fixed stars form constellations, appears ...

means that the whole

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

is visible to observers south of 49°N.

Hydra Hydra generally refers to: * Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology * ''Hydra'' (genus), a genus of simple freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria Hydra or The Hydra may also refer to: Astronomy * Hydra (constel ...

the sea snake runs along the length of its northern border, while

Pyxis Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky. Abbreviated from Pyxis Nautica, its name is Latin for a mariner's compass (contrasting with Circinus, which represents a draftsman's compasses). Pyxis was introduced by Nicolas-Lo ...

the compass, Vela the sails, and

Centaurus Centaurus is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the 88 modern constellations by area, largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one o ...

the centaur line it to the west, south and east respectively. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union, is "Ant". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer

Eugène Delporte Eugene is a common male given name that comes from the Greek εὐγενής (''eugenēs''), "noble", literally "well-born", from εὖ (''eu''), "well" and γένος (''genos''), "race, stock, kin".equatorial coordinate system The equatorial coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system widely used to specify the positions of celestial objects. It may be implemented in spherical or rectangular coordinates, both defined by an origin at the centre of Earth, a fund ...

, the

right ascension Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol ) is the angular distance of a particular point measured eastward along the celestial equator from the Sun at the March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in question above the earth. When paired w ...

coordinates of these borders lie between and , while the

declination In astronomy, declination (abbreviated dec; symbol ''δ'') is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. Declination's angle is measured north or south of the ...

coordinates are between −24.54° and −40.42°.

Features

Stars

Lacaille gave nine stars

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. ...

s, labelling them Alpha through to Theta, combining two stars next to each other as Zeta. Gould later added a tenth, Iota Antliae. Beta and Gamma Antliae (now

HR 4339 HR 4339 is a single star in the equatorial constellation of Hydra. It was designated as Beta Antliae by Lacaille, and Gould intended to keep it in that constellation. However, the delineating of constellation boundaries by the IAU in 1930 ...

and

HD 90156 HD 90156 is a 7th apparent magnitude, magnitude G-type star, G-type main sequence star located approximately 73 light years away in the constellation Hydra (constellation), Hydra. This star is smaller, cooler, fainter, and less massive th ...

) ended up in the neighbouring constellation Hydra once the constellation boundaries were delineated in 1930. Within the constellation's borders, there are 42 stars brighter than or equal to

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

6.5. The constellation's two brightest stars—

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

and Epsilon Antliae—shine with a reddish tinge. Alpha is an orange

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

of

spectral type In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...

K4III that is a suspected

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...

, ranging between

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

s 4.22 and 4.29. It is located 320 ± 10

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s away from Earth. Estimated to be shining with around 480 to 555 times the

luminosity Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic power (light), the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object over time. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per unit of time by a st ...

of the Sun, it is most likely an ageing star that is brightening and on its way to becoming a

Mira variable Mira variables (named for the prototype star Mira) are a class of pulsating stars characterized by very red colours, pulsation periods longer than 100 days, and amplitudes greater than one magnitude in infrared and 2.5 magnitude at visual wavelen ...

star, having converted all its core fuel into carbon. Located 590 ± 30 light-years from Earth, Epsilon Antliae is an evolved orange giant star of spectral type K3 IIIa, that has swollen to have a diameter about 69 times that of the Sun, and a luminosity of around 1279 Suns. It is slightly variable. At the other end of Antlia, Iota Antliae is likewise an orange giant of spectral type K1 III. It is 202 ± 2 light-years distant. Located near Alpha is Delta Antliae, a

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

, 450 ± 10 light-years distant from Earth. The primary is a blue-white main sequence star of spectral type B9.5V and magnitude 5.6, and the secondary is a yellow-white main sequence star of spectral type F9Ve and magnitude 9.6. Zeta Antliae is a wide optical

double star In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes. This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a bi ...

. The brighter star— Zeta¹ Antliae—is 410 ± 40 light-years distant and has a magnitude of 5.74, though it is a true binary star system composed of two white main sequence stars of magnitudes 6.20 and 7.01 that are separated by 8.042

arcsecond A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...

s. The fainter star— Zeta² Antliae—is 386 ± 5 light-years distant and of magnitude 5.9.

Eta Antliae Eta Antliae (η Ant, η Antliae) is the Bayer designation for a double star in the southern constellation of Antlia. The brighter component has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.222, making it visible to the naked eye. Parallax measureme ...

is another double composed of a yellow white star of spectral type F1V and magnitude 5.31, with a companion of magnitude 11.3.

Theta Antliae Theta Antliae (θ Ant, θ Antliae) is the Bayer designation for a binary star in the southern constellation of Antlia. The pair have a combined apparent visual magnitude of +4.78; the brighter component is magnitude +5.30 while the second ...

is likewise double, most likely composed of an

A-type main sequence star An A-type main-sequence star (A V) or A dwarf star is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type A and luminosity class V (five). These stars have spectra defined by strong hydrogen Balmer absorption lines. They measure between 1 ...

and a yellow giant.

S Antliae S Antliae is a W Ursae Majoris-type eclipsing binary star in Antlia. Characteristics S Antilia is classed as an A-type W Ursae Majoris variable, since the primary is hotter than the secondary and the drop in magnitude is caused by the la ...

is an

eclipsing binary A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

star system that varies in apparent magnitude from 6.27 to 6.83 over a period of 15.6 hours. The system is classed as a

W Ursae Majoris variable A W Ursae Majoris variable, also known as a low mass contact binary, is a type of eclipsing binary variable star. These stars are close binaries of spectral types F, G, or K that share a common envelope of material and are thus in contact with one ...

—the primary is hotter than the secondary and the drop in magnitude is caused by the latter passing in front of the former. Calculating the properties of the component stars from the orbital period indicates that the primary star has a mass 1.94 times and a diameter 2.026 times that of the Sun, and the secondary has a mass 0.76 times and a diameter 1.322 times that of the Sun. The two stars have similar

luminosity Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic power (light), the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object over time. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per unit of time by a st ...

and

spectral type In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...

as they have a

common envelope In astronomy, a common envelope (CE) is gas that contains a binary star system. The gas does not rotate at the same rate as the embedded binary system. A system with such a configuration is said to be in a common envelope phase or undergoing commo ...

and share stellar material. The system is thought to be around 5–6 billion years old. The two stars will eventually merge to form a single fast-spinning star. T Antliae is a yellow-white supergiant of spectral type F6Iab and

Classical Cepheid variable Classical Cepheids (also known as Population I Cepheids, Type I Cepheids, or Delta Cepheid variables) are a type of Cepheid variable star. They are population I variable stars that exhibit regular radial pulsations with periods of a few days to a ...

ranging between magnitude 8.88 and 9.82 over 5.9 days.

U Antliae U Antliae (U Ant) is a variable star in the constellation Antlia. It is a carbon star surrounded by two thin shells of dust. U Antliae is an extremely red C-type carbon star. These cool stars on the asymptotic giant branch are furthe ...

is a red C-type

carbon star A carbon star (C-type star) is typically an asymptotic giant branch star, a luminous red giant, whose atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen. The two elements combine in the upper layers of the star, forming carbon monoxide, which consumes mos ...

and is an

irregular variable An irregular variable is a type of variable star in which variations in brightness show no regular periodicity. There are two main sub-types of irregular variable: eruptive and pulsating. Eruptive irregular variables are divided into three categor ...

that ranges between magnitudes 5.27 and 6.04. At 910 ± 50 light-years distant, it is around 5819 times as luminous as the Sun. BF Antliae is a

Delta Scuti variable A Delta Scuti variable (sometimes termed dwarf cepheid when the V-band amplitude is larger than 0.3 mag.) is a subclass of young pulsating star. These variables as well as classical cepheids are important standard candles and have been used to e ...

that varies by 0.01 of a magnitude.

HR 4049 HR 4049, also known as HD 89353 and AG Antliae, is a binary post- asymptotic-giant-branch (post-AGB) star in the constellation Antlia. A very metal-poor star, it is surrounded by a thick unique circumbinary disk enriched in several m ...

, also known as AG Antliae, is an unusual hot variable ageing star of spectral type B9.5Ib-II. It is undergoing intense loss of mass and is a unique variable that does not belong to any class of known variable star, ranging between magnitudes 5.29 and 5.83 with a period of 429 days. It is around 6000 light-years away from Earth.

UX Antliae UX Antliae is a post-AGB and R Coronae Borealis variable star that has a base apparent magnitude of around 11.85, with irregular dimmings down to below magnitude 18.0. Researchers David Kilkenny and J.E. Westerhuys of the South African ...

is an

R Coronae Borealis variable An R Coronae Borealis variable (abbreviated RCB, R CrB) is an eruptive variable star that varies in luminosity in two modes, one low amplitude pulsation (a few tenths of a magnitude), and one irregular, unpredictably-sudden fading by 1 to 9 ma ...

with a baseline apparent magnitude of around 11.85, with irregular dimmings down to below magnitude 18.0. A luminous and remote star, it is a

supergiant Supergiants are among the most massive and most luminous stars. Supergiant stars occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram with absolute visual magnitudes between about −3 and −8. The temperature range of supergiant stars spa ...

with a spectrum resembling that of a yellow-white F-type star but it has almost no hydrogen. NGC 2997 ESO

HD 93083 HD 93083 is an orange-hued star in the southern constellation of Antlia. It has the proper name Macondo, after the mythical village of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad). The name was selected by Colombia duri ...

is an orange dwarf star of spectral type K3V that is smaller and cooler than the Sun. It has a planet that was discovered by the

radial velocity method Doppler spectroscopy (also known as the radial-velocity method, or colloquially, the wobble method) is an indirect method for finding extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in t ...

with the

HARPS spectrograph The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision echelle planet-finding spectrograph installed in 2002 on the ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The first light was achieved in February 2003. H ...

in 2005. About as massive as Saturn, the planet orbits its star with a period of 143 days at a mean distance of 0.477 AU.

WASP-66 WASP-66, also known as TYC 7193-1804-1, is an F-type star in the constellation Antlia. It has an apparent magnitude of 11.6, which is much too faint to be seen with the unaided eye and is located at a distance of . WASP-66 has a classifi ...

is a sunlike star of spectral type F4V. A planet with 2.3 times the mass of Jupiter orbits it every 4 days, discovered by the transit method in 2012. DEN 1048-3956 is a

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most ...

of spectral type M8 located around 13 light-years distant from Earth. At magnitude 17 it is much too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. It has a surface temperature of about 2500 K. Two powerful

flares A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, o ...

lasting 4–5 minutes each were detected in 2002.

2MASS 0939-2448 Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

is a system of two cool and faint brown dwarfs, probably with effective temperatures of about 500 and 700 K and masses of about 25 and 40 times that of Jupiter, though it is also possible that both objects have temperatures of 600 K and 30 Jupiter masses.

Deep-sky objects

Antlia contains many faint galaxies, the brightest of which is

NGC 2997 NGC 2997 is a face-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the faint southern constellation of Antlia. It was discovered March 4, 1793 by German-born astronomer William Herschel. John Louis Emil Dreyer, J. L. E. Dreyer ...

at magnitude 10.6. It is a loosely wound face-on

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''Sc. Though nondescript in most amateur telescopes, it presents bright clusters of young stars and many dark dust lanes in photographs. Discovered in 1997, the

Antlia Dwarf The Antlia Dwarf is a dwarf spheroidal/irregular galaxy. It lies about 1.3 Mpc (4.3 million light-years) from Earth in the constellation Antlia. It is the fourth and faintest member of the nearby Antlia-Sextans Group of galaxies. The gal ...

is a 14.8^m

dwarf spheroidal galaxy A dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) is a term in astronomy applied to small, low-luminosity galaxies with very little dust and an older stellar population. They are found in the Local Group as companions to the Milky Way and to systems that are comp ...

that belongs to the

Local Group The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way. It has a total diameter of roughly , and a total mass of the order of . It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape: the Milky Way and its satellites form ...

of galaxies. In 2018 the discovery was announced of a very low

surface brightness In astronomy, surface brightness (SB) quantifies the apparent brightness or flux density per unit angular area of a spatially extended object such as a galaxy or nebula, or of the night sky background. An object's surface brightness depends on its ...

galaxy near Epsilon Antliae, Antlia 2, which is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The Antlia Cluster, also known as Abell S0636, is a

cluster of galaxies A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-lar ...

located in the

Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster The Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster (SCl 128), or the Hydra and Centaurus Superclusters, is a supercluster in two parts, the closest neighbour of Virgo Supercluster. Hydra-Centaurus The cluster includes four large galaxy clusters in the Centaurus pa ...

. It is the third nearest to the

Local Group The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way. It has a total diameter of roughly , and a total mass of the order of . It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape: the Milky Way and its satellites form ...

after the

Virgo Cluster The Virgo Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the lar ...

and the

Fornax Cluster The Fornax Cluster is a cluster of galaxies lying at a distance of 19 megaparsecs (62 million light-years). It has an estimated mass of solar masses, making it the second richest galaxy cluster within 100 million light-years, after the consider ...

. The cluster's distance from earth is to Located in the southeastern corner of the constellation, it boasts the giant elliptical galaxies NGC 3268 and NGC 3258 as the main members of a southern and northern subgroup respectively, and contains around 234 galaxies in total. Antlia is home to the huge Antlia Supernova Remnant, one of the largest supernova remnants in the sky.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * *

External links

The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Antlia

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Antlia Southern constellations Constellations listed by Lacaille