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Fornax () is a
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 ...
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 ...
, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is
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 ...
for furnace. It was named by French astronomer
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Good ...
in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 modern constellations. The three 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 ...
,
Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
and
Nu Fornacis Nu Fornacis, Latinized from ν Fornacis, is a single, variable star in the southern constellation of Fornax. It is blue-white in hue and faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude that fluctuates around 4.69. Thi ...
—form a flattened triangle facing south. With an apparent magnitude of 3.91, Alpha Fornacis is the brightest star in Fornax. Six star systems have been found to have exoplanets. The
Fornax Dwarf The Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal (formerly known as the Fornax System) is an elliptical dwarf galaxy in the constellation Fornax that was discovered in 1938 by Harlow Shapley. He discovered it while he was in South Africa on photographic plates take ...
galaxy is a small faint satellite galaxy of the
Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
.
NGC 1316 NGC 1316 (also known as ''Fornax A'') is a lenticular galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. It is a radio galaxy and at 1400 MHz is the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky. Structure and formation In the late ...
is a relatively close radio galaxy. It is the 41st largest
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 ...
in the night-sky, occupying an area of 398 square degrees. It is located in the first quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ1) and can be seen at
latitudes In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
between +50° and -90° during the month of December.


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 French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Good ...
first described the
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 ...
in French as ''le Fourneau Chymique'' (the Chemical Furnace) with an
alembic An alembic (from ar, الإنبيق, al-inbīq, originating from grc, ἄμβιξ, ambix, 'cup, beaker') is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for distillation of liquids. Description The complete disti ...
and receiver in his early catalogue, before abbreviating it to ''le Fourneau'' on his planisphere in 1752, after he 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 ...
. He devised 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. All but one honoured 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 Latinised the name to ''Fornax Chimiae'' on his 1763 chart.


Characteristics

The constellation Eridanus borders Fornax to the east, north and south, while Cetus, Sculptor and Phoenix gird it to the north, west and south respectively. Covering 397.5 square degrees and 0.964% of the night sky, it ranks 41st of the 88 constellations in size, The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by 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 ...
in 1922, is "For". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 8 segments (''illustrated in infobox''). In the equatorial coordinate system, 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 −23.76° and −39.58°. The whole constellation is visible to observers south of latitude 50°N.


Features


Stars

Lacaille gave
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 to 27 stars now named Alpha to Omega Fornacis, labelling two stars 3.5 degrees apart as Gamma, three stars Eta, two stars Iota, two Lambda and three Chi. Phi Fornacis was added by Gould, and Theta and Omicron were dropped by Gould and Baily respectively. Upsilon, too, was later found to be two stars and designated as such. Overall, there are 59 stars within the constellation's borders 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. However, there are no stars brighter than the fourth magnitude. The three brightest stars form a flattish triangle, with
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 ...
(also called Dalim) and
Nu Fornacis Nu Fornacis, Latinized from ν Fornacis, is a single, variable star in the southern constellation of Fornax. It is blue-white in hue and faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude that fluctuates around 4.69. Thi ...
marking its eastern and western points and
Beta Fornacis Beta Fornacis (Beta For, β Fornacis, β For) is the Bayer designation for a solitary star in the southern constellation of Fornax. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.46. Based upon ...
marking the shallow southern apex. Originally designated 12 Eridani by John Flamsteed, Alpha Fornacis was named by Lacaille as the brightest star in the new constellation. It is a binary star that can be resolved by small amateur telescopes. With an apparent magnitude of 3.91, the primary is a yellow-white subgiant 1.21 times as massive as the Sun that has begun to cool and expand after exhausting its core hydrogen, having swollen to 1.9 times the Sun's radius. Of magnitude 6.5, the secondary star is 0.78 times as massive as the Sun. It has been identified as a blue straggler, and has either accumulated material from, or merged with, a third star in the past. It is a strong source of X-rays. The pair is 46.4 ± 0.3 light-years distant from Earth.
Beta Fornacis Beta Fornacis (Beta For, β Fornacis, β For) is the Bayer designation for a solitary star in the southern constellation of Fornax. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.46. Based upon ...
is a yellow-hued giant star of spectral type G8IIIb of magnitude 4.5 that has cooled and swelled to 11 times the Sun's diameter, 178 ± 2 light-years from Earth. It is a red clump giant, which means it has undergone
helium flash A helium flash is a very brief thermal runaway nuclear fusion of large quantities of helium into carbon through the triple-alpha process in the core of low mass stars (between 0.8 solar masses () and 2.0 ) during their red giant phase (the Sun is ...
and is currently generating energy through the fusion of helium at its core.
Nu Fornacis Nu Fornacis, Latinized from ν Fornacis, is a single, variable star in the southern constellation of Fornax. It is blue-white in hue and faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude that fluctuates around 4.69. Thi ...
is 370 ± 10 light-years distant from Earth. It is a blue giant star of spectral type B9.5IIIspSi that is 3.65 ± 0.18 times as massive and around 245 times as luminous as the Sun, with 3.2 ± 0.4 times its diameter. It varies in luminosity over a period of 1.89 days—the same as its rotational period. This is because of differences in abundances of metals in its atmosphere; it belongs to a class of star known as an Alpha2 Canum Venaticorum variable. Shining with an apparent magnitude of 5.89, Epsilon Fornacis is a binary star system located 104.4 ± 0.3 light-years distant from Earth. Its component stars orbit each other every 37 years. The primary star is around 12 billion years old and has cooled and expanded to 2.53 times the diameter of the Sun, while having only 91% of its mass.
Omega Fornacis Omega Fornacis, which is Latinized from ω Fornacis, is a wide binary star system in the southern constellation of Fornax. It has a blue-white hue and is faintly visible to the naked eye as a fifth-magnitude star. The system lies at a d ...
is a binary star system composed of a blue main-sequence star of spectral type B9.5V and magnitude 4.96, and a white main sequence star of spectral type A7V and magnitude 7.88. The system is 470 ± 10 light-years distant from Earth. Kappa Fornacis is a triple star system composed of a yellow giant and a pair of red dwarfs. R Fornacis is a long-period variable and carbon star.
LP 944-20 LP 944-20 is a dim brown dwarf of spectral class M9 located about 21 light-years from the Solar System in the constellation of Fornax. With a visual apparent magnitude of 18.69, it has one of the dimmest visual magnitudes listed on the ...
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 M9 that has around 7% the mass of the Sun. Approximately 21 light-years distant from Earth, it is a faint object with an apparent magnitude of 18.69. Observations published in 2007 showed that the atmosphere of LP 944-20 contains much
lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid el ...
and that it has dusty
cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
s. Smaller and less luminous still is 2MASS 0243-2453, a T-type brown dwarf of spectral type T6. With a surface temperature of 1040–1100 K, it has 2.4–4.1% the mass of the Sun, a diameter 9.2 to 10.6% of that of the Sun, and an age of 0.4–1.7 billion years. Six star systems in Fornax have been found to have planets: * Lambda2 Fornacis is a star about 1.2 times as massive as the Sun with a planet about as massive as
Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...
, discovered by doppler spectroscopy in 2009. The planet has an orbit of around 17.24 days. *
HD 20868 HD 20868 is a star in the southern constellation Fornax. With an apparent visual magnitude of 9.92, it is much too dim to be visible to the naked eye. Parallax measurements give a distance estimate of 156 light years from the Sun. It ...
is an orange dwarf with a mass around 78% that of the Sun, 151 ± 10 light-years away from Earth. It was found to have an orbiting planet approximately double the mass of Jupiter with a period of 380 days. * WASP-72 is a star around 1.4 times as massive that has begun to cool and expand off the main sequence, reaching double the Sun's diameter. It has a planet around as massive as Jupiter orbiting it every 2.2 days. *
HD 20781 HD 20781 is a star which is part of a wide binary system with HD 20782. The companion star has a very large angular separation of 252 arcsec, corresponding to 9080 AU at the distance of HD 20782. Both stars possess their own planetary ...
and
HD 20782 HD 20782 is a 7th apparent magnitude, magnitude G-type main sequence star 117.5 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of Fornax. HD 20782 is a part of a wide binary system in which the other star is designated HD 20781, and both ...
are a pair of sunlike yellow main sequence stars that orbit each other. Each has been found to have planets. * HR 858 is a near naked eye visible star in Fornax, 31.3 parsecs away. In May 2019, it was announced to have at least 3 exoplanets as observed by transit method of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.


Deep-sky objects

Local Group NGC 1049 is a globular cluster 500,000 light-years from Earth. It is in the
Fornax Dwarf The Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal (formerly known as the Fornax System) is an elliptical dwarf galaxy in the constellation Fornax that was discovered in 1938 by Harlow Shapley. He discovered it while he was in South Africa on photographic plates take ...
Galaxy. NGC 1360 is a planetary nebula in Fornax with a magnitude of approximately 9.0, 1,280 light-years from Earth. Its central star is of magnitude 11.4, an unusually bright specimen. It is five times the size of the famed
Ring Nebula The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57 and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra. Such a nebula is formed when a star, during the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf, expels a v ...
in
Lyra Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was ...
at 6.5 arcminutes. Unlike the Ring Nebula, NGC 1360 is clearly elliptical. The
Fornax Dwarf The Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal (formerly known as the Fornax System) is an elliptical dwarf galaxy in the constellation Fornax that was discovered in 1938 by Harlow Shapley. He discovered it while he was in South Africa on photographic plates take ...
galaxy is a dwarf galaxy that is part of 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. It is not visible in amateur telescopes, despite its relatively small distance of 500,000 light-years.
Helmi stream The Helmi Stream is a stellar stream of the Milky Way galaxy. It started as a dwarf galaxy, now absorbed by the Milky Way as a stream. It was discovered in 1999, is formed of old stars deficient in heavy elements, and has a mass of 10 to 100 millio ...
is a small galactic stream in Fornax. This small galaxy was destroyed by Milky Way 6 billion years ago. There was candidate for extragalactic planet, HIP 13044 b. Outside
NGC 1097 NGC 1097 (also known as Caldwell 67) is a barred spiral galaxy about 45 million light years away in the constellation Fornax. It was discovered by William Herschel on 9 October 1790. It is a severely interacting galaxy with obvious tidal debri ...
is a barred spiral galaxy in Fornax, about 45 million light-years from Earth. At magnitude 9, it is visible in medium amateur telescopes. It is notable as a
Seyfert galaxy Seyfert galaxies are one of the two largest groups of active galaxies, along with quasars. They have quasar-like nuclei (very luminous, distant and bright sources of electromagnetic radiation) with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra ...
with strong spectral emissions indicating ionized gases and a central supermassive black hole. Fornax Cluster The Fornax Cluster is a cluster of galaxies lying at a distance of 19 mega parsecs (62 million
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). It is the second richest galaxy cluster within 100 million light-years, after the considerably larger Virgo Cluster, and may be associated with the nearby
Eridanus Group The Eridanus Group, sometimes called the Eridanus Cloud, is a nearby loose grouping of galaxies at a mean distance of approximately 75 Mly (23 ± 2 Mpc) in the constellation Eridanus. Redshift values show that there are approximately 200 gal ...
. It lies primarily in the constellation Fornax, with its southern boundaries partially crossing into the constellation of Eridanus, and covers an area of sky about 6° across or about 28 sq degrees. The Fornax cluster is a part of larger
Fornax Wall The Fornax Wall is a superstructure known as a galaxy filament or galaxy wall. It is a long filament of galaxies with a major axis longer than its minor one. The filament contains not only Dorado Group but also the Fornax cluster The Fornax Clus ...
. Down are some famous objects in this cluster:
NGC 1365 NGC 1365, also known as the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy, is a double-barred spiral galaxy about 56 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. Characteristics NGC 1365 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Fornax cluster. Within the l ...
is another barred spiral galaxy located at a distance of 56 million light-years from Earth. Like NGC 1097, it is also a
Seyfert galaxy Seyfert galaxies are one of the two largest groups of active galaxies, along with quasars. They have quasar-like nuclei (very luminous, distant and bright sources of electromagnetic radiation) with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra ...
. Its bar is a center of
star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space
and shows extensions of the spiral arms'
dust lane A dust lane consists of a relatively dense, obscuring clouds of interstellar dust, observed as a dark swath against the background of a brighter object(s), especially a galaxy. These dust lanes can usually be seen in spiral galaxies, such as th ...
s. The bright nucleus indicates the presence of an active galactic nucleus – a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at the center, accreting matter from the bar. It is a 10th magnitude galaxy associated with the Fornax Cluster.
Fornax A NGC 1316 (also known as ''Fornax A'') is a lenticular galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. It is a radio galaxy and at 1400 MHz is the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky. Structure and formation In the l ...
is a radio galaxy with extensive radio lobes that corresponds to the optical galaxy
NGC 1316 NGC 1316 (also known as ''Fornax A'') is a lenticular galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. It is a radio galaxy and at 1400 MHz is the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky. Structure and formation In the late ...
, a 9th-magnitude galaxy. One of the closer
active galaxies An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not pr ...
to Earth at a distance of 62 million light-years, Fornax A appears in the optical spectrum as a large elliptical galaxy with
dust lane A dust lane consists of a relatively dense, obscuring clouds of interstellar dust, observed as a dark swath against the background of a brighter object(s), especially a galaxy. These dust lanes can usually be seen in spiral galaxies, such as th ...
s near its core. These dust lanes have caused astronomers to discern that it recently
merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
with a small
spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''type Ia supernova A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
e, NGC 1316 has been used to determine the size of the universe. The
jet Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to: Aerospace * Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines ** Jet airliner ** Jet engine ** Jet fuel * Jet Airways, an Indian airline * Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline * Journey to Enceladus a ...
s producing the radio lobes are not particularly powerful, giving the lobes a more diffuse, knotted structure due to interactions with the intergalactic medium. Associated with this peculiar galaxy is an entire cluster of galaxies.
NGC 1399 NGC 1399 is a large elliptical galaxy in the Southern constellation Fornax (constellation), Fornax, the central galaxy in the Fornax Cluster. The galaxy is 66 million light-years away from Earth. With a diameter of 130 000 light-years, it is ...
is a large elliptical galaxy in the Southern
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 ...
Fornax, the central galaxy in the Fornax cluster. The galaxy is 66 million light-years away from Earth. With a diameter of 130 000 light-years, it is one of the largest galaxies in the Fornax cluster and slightly larger than
Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
. William Herschel discovered this galaxy on October 22, 1835.
NGC 1386 NGC 1386 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Eridanus. It is located at a distance of circa 53 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 1386 is about 50,000 light years across. It is a Seyfe ...
is a
spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''Eridanus. It is located at a distance of circa 53 million
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 from Earth and has apparent dimensions of 3.89' x 1.349'. It is a
Seyfert galaxy Seyfert galaxies are one of the two largest groups of active galaxies, along with quasars. They have quasar-like nuclei (very luminous, distant and bright sources of electromagnetic radiation) with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra ...
, the only one in Fornax Cluster.
NGC 1427A NGC 1427A is an irregular galaxy in the constellation Fornax. Its distance modulus has been estimated using the globular cluster luminosity function to be 31.01 ± 0.21 which is about 52 Mly. It is the brightest dwarf irregular member of the Fo ...
is an
irregular galaxy An irregular galaxy is a galaxy that does not have a distinct regular shape, unlike a spiral or an elliptical galaxy. Irregular galaxies do not fall into any of the regular classes of the Hubble sequence, and they are often chaotic in appearanc ...
in the
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 ...
Eridanus. Its distance modulus has been estimated using the globular cluster luminosity function to be 31.01 ± 0.21 which is about 52 Mly. It is the brightest dwarf irregular member of the Fornax cluster and is in the foreground of the cluster's central galaxy
NGC 1399 NGC 1399 is a large elliptical galaxy in the Southern constellation Fornax (constellation), Fornax, the central galaxy in the Fornax Cluster. The galaxy is 66 million light-years away from Earth. With a diameter of 130 000 light-years, it is ...
.
NGC 1460 NGC 1460 is a barred lenticular galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. It was discovered by John Herschel on November 28, 1837. It is moving away from the Milky Way at 1341 km/s. Distance and size At a distance of nearly 63 million light ...
is a barred lenticular galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. It was discovered by
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 ...
on November 28, 1837. It is moving away from the
Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
1341 km/s. NGC 1460 has a
Hubble classification The Hubble sequence is a morphological classification scheme for galaxies invented by Edwin Hubble in 1926. It is often colloquially known as the Hubble tuning-fork diagram because the shape in which it is traditionally represented resembles a t ...
of SB0, which indicates it is a barred lenticular galaxy. But, this one contains a huge bar at its core. The bar is spreading from center to the edge of the galaxy, as seen on Hubble image in the box. This bar is one of the largest seen in barred lenticular galaxies. There are also first ultracompact dwarf galaxies discovered. Distant universe Fornax has been the target of investigations into the furthest reaches of the
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
. The
Hubble Ultra Deep Field The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) is a deep-field image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, containing an estimated 10,000 galaxies. The original data for the image was collected by the Hubble Space Telescope from Septemb ...
is located within Fornax, and the Fornax Cluster, a small cluster of galaxies, lies primarily within Fornax. At a meeting of the
Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...
in Britain, a team from
University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...
described 40 unknown "dwarf" galaxies in this constellation; follow-up observations with the
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...
and the
European Southern Observatory The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 mem ...
's
Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m across, ...
revealed that ultra compact dwarfs are much smaller than previously known dwarf galaxies, about across. `
UDFj-39546284 __NOTOC__ UDFj-39546284 is a high- redshift Lyman-break galaxy discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in infrared Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) observations in 2009. The object, located in the Fornax constellation, was identified by G. Illi ...
is a candidate protogalaxy located in Fornax,NASA
"NASA's Hubble Finds Most Distant Galaxy Candidate Ever Seen in Universe"
26 January 2011
HubbleSite
"NASA's Hubble Finds Most Distant Galaxy Candidate Ever Seen in Universe"
STScI-2011-05, 26 January 2011
although recent analyses have suggested it is likely to be a lower redshift source.
GRB 190114C GRB 190114C was an extreme gamma-ray burst explosion from a galaxy 4.5 billion light years away (z=0.4245; magnitude=15.60est) near the Fornax constellation, that was initially detected in January 2019. The afterglow light emitted soon after t ...
was a notable gamma ray burst explosion from a galaxy 4.5 billion light years away near the Fornax constellation, that was initially detected in January 2019. According to astronomers, "the brightest light ever seen from Earth
o date O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
... hebiggest explosion in the Universe since the
Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
".


Equivalents

In
Chinese astronomy 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 Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the twe ...
, the stars that correspond to Fornax are within the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎, ''Xī Fāng Bái Hǔ'').AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 7 月 10 日
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Gallery

File:Rings of Relativity.jpg, Rings of Relativity File:Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster.jpg, Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster


See also

*
Fornax (Chinese astronomy) According to traditional Chinese uranography, the modern constellation Fornax is located within the western quadrant of the sky, The White Tiger of the West (西方白虎, ''Xī Fāng Bái Hǔ''). The name of the western constellation in modern C ...


Notes


References


Cited texts

* * * Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion (2007). ''Stars and Planets Guide'', Collins, London. . Princeton University Press, Princeton. .


External links


The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Fornax




{{DEFAULTSORT:Constellation, Fornax Southern constellations Constellations listed by Lacaille