Fornax is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partially surrounded by Eridanus, the celestial river. Its name comes from the Latin word meaning furnace. Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, a French astronomer, named it in 1756. One of the eighty-eight contemporary constellations is Fornax.
Alpha, Beta, and Nu Fornacis, the three brightest stars, form a flattened triangle facing south. Alpha Fornacis is the brightest star in Fornax, with an apparent magnitude of 3.91. Exoplanets have been discovered in six-star systems. The Milky Way's Fornax Dwarf galaxy is a small, dim satellite galaxy. NGC 1316 is a radio galaxy that is relatively close to us. With an area of 398 square degrees, it is the 41st largest constellation in the night sky. During December, it can be seen at latitudes between +50° and -90° in the southern hemisphere's first quadrant. |
History
In his early catalogue, the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille first described the constellation as le Fourneau Chymique (the Chemical Furnace) with an alembic and receiver, (Wagman 2003) before abbreviating it to le Fourneau on his planisphere in 1752 (Lacaille 1756), after observing and cataloguing nearly 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the Cape of Good Hope. He created fourteen new constellations in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere that are not visible from Europe. All but one paid homage to instruments associated with the Age of Enlightenment. On his 1763 chart, Lacaille Latinized the name for Fornax Chimiae. (Wagman 2003) |
Characteristics
Fornax is surrounded by the constellations Eridanus to the east, north, and south, and Cetus, Sculptor, and Phoenix to the north, west, and south, respectively. It is the 41st largest constellation, covering 397.5 square degrees and 0.964 percent of the night sky. The International Astronomical Union selected the three-letter abbreviation "For" for the constellation in 1922. (Russell 1922) A polygon of eight segments defines the official constellation limits, which were established by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930. The right ascension coordinates of these borders are between 01h 45m 24.18s and 03h 50m 21.34s in the equatorial coordinate system, while the declination coordinates are between 23.76° and 39.58°. Observers south of latitude can see the entire constellation. |
Deep-sky Objects
NGC 1049 – Globular cluster
NGC 1360 – Robins egg nebula – Planetary Nebula
NGC 1097 – Barred Spiral Galaxy
NGC 1365 – Barred Spiral Galaxy
NGC 1399 – Large Elliptical Galaxy
Deep field
The Fornax Cluster is a group of galaxies located nineteen megaparsecs away (sixty-two million light-years). (Jordan et al., 2006) After the much larger Virgo Cluster, it is the second richest galaxy cluster within one hundred million light-years, and it may be linked to the nearby Eridanus Group. It is mostly located in the constellation Fornax, with its southern limits partially crossing into Eridanus, and spans an area of the sky of about 6° wide or 28 sq. degrees. (Drinkwater et al., 2011) The Fornax Wall is made up of several smaller Fornax clusters. (O’Meara 2013)
Fornax has been the subject of research into the universe's farthest reaches. Within Fornax, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is found, while the Fornax Cluster, a tiny cluster of galaxies, is largely located Fornax. A team from the University of Queensland described forty unknown "dwarf" galaxies in this constellation at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom; follow-up observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope revealed that ultra-compact dwarfs are much smaller than previously known dwarf galaxies, measuring about 120 light-years across. (Hiker et al., 2007) UDFj-39546284 is a protogalaxy candidate in Fornax, Recent analyses have revealed that it is most likely a source with a lower redshift. (Bouwens et al., 2013)
GRB 190114C was a significant gamma-ray burst explosion from a galaxy 4.5 billion light years away near the constellation Fornax (Zhang 2019), that was first discovered in January of this year. (Palmer 2019) "The brightest light ever observed from Earth to date, and the largest explosion in the Universe since the Big Bang," according to astronomers. (Wood 2019)
NGC 1049 – Globular cluster
NGC 1360 – Robins egg nebula – Planetary Nebula
NGC 1097 – Barred Spiral Galaxy
NGC 1365 – Barred Spiral Galaxy
NGC 1399 – Large Elliptical Galaxy
Deep field
The Fornax Cluster is a group of galaxies located nineteen megaparsecs away (sixty-two million light-years). (Jordan et al., 2006) After the much larger Virgo Cluster, it is the second richest galaxy cluster within one hundred million light-years, and it may be linked to the nearby Eridanus Group. It is mostly located in the constellation Fornax, with its southern limits partially crossing into Eridanus, and spans an area of the sky of about 6° wide or 28 sq. degrees. (Drinkwater et al., 2011) The Fornax Wall is made up of several smaller Fornax clusters. (O’Meara 2013)
Fornax has been the subject of research into the universe's farthest reaches. Within Fornax, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is found, while the Fornax Cluster, a tiny cluster of galaxies, is largely located Fornax. A team from the University of Queensland described forty unknown "dwarf" galaxies in this constellation at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom; follow-up observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope revealed that ultra-compact dwarfs are much smaller than previously known dwarf galaxies, measuring about 120 light-years across. (Hiker et al., 2007) UDFj-39546284 is a protogalaxy candidate in Fornax, Recent analyses have revealed that it is most likely a source with a lower redshift. (Bouwens et al., 2013)
GRB 190114C was a significant gamma-ray burst explosion from a galaxy 4.5 billion light years away near the constellation Fornax (Zhang 2019), that was first discovered in January of this year. (Palmer 2019) "The brightest light ever observed from Earth to date, and the largest explosion in the Universe since the Big Bang," according to astronomers. (Wood 2019)
Main stars - 2
Bayer stars - 27
Stars with planets - 6
Stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 - 0
Stars within 32.62 Ly - 2
Bordering
constellations
Bayer stars - 27
Stars with planets - 6
Stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 - 0
Stars within 32.62 Ly - 2
Bordering
constellations
- Cetus
- Sculptor
- Phoenix
- Eridanus