Fornax is a
constellationIn modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
in the southern sky. Its name is
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for
furnaceA furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin fornax, oven.In American English and Canadian English, the term furnace on its own is generally used to describe household heating systems based on a central furnace , and sometimes as a synonym for kiln, a device used in the...
. It was created in the 18th century and is now one of the 88 modern constellations.
History
Fornax was formed by
Nicolas Louis de LacailleAbbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille was a French astronomer.He is noted for his catalogue of nearly 10,000 southern stars, including 42 nebulous objects. This catalogue, called Coelum Australe Stelliferum, was published posthumously in 1763. It introduced 14 new constellations which have since become...
in 1756. He originally called it
Fornax Chemica ("chemical furnace"), representing a small
solid fuelSolid fuel refers to various types of solid material that are used as fuel to produce energy and provide heating, usually released through combustion....
heater used for heating
chemicalChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
experimentAn experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
s.
Notable features
Fornax has been the target of investigations into the furthest reaches of the
universeThe Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
. The
Hubble Ultra Deep FieldThe Hubble Ultra-Deep Field is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, composited from Hubble Space Telescope data accumulated over a period from September 24, 2003, through to January 16, 2004...
is located within Fornax, and the
Fornax ClusterAt a distance of approximately 62.0 Mly , the Fornax Cluster is the second richest cluster of galaxies within 100 million light-years, although it is much smaller than the Virgo Cluster. It lies primarily in the constellation Fornax, and may be associated with the nearby Eridanus Group...
, a small cluster of galaxies, lies primarily within Fornax. At a meeting of the
Royal Astronomical SocietyThe Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society that began as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomical research . It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV...
in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, a team from
University of QueenslandThe University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
described 40 unknown "dwarf" galaxies in this constellation; follow-up observations with the
Hubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
and the
European Southern ObservatoryThe European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
's
Very Large TelescopeThe Very Large Telescope is a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The VLT consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2m across, which are generally used separately but can be used together to...
revealed that ultra compact dwarfs are much smaller than previously known dwarf galaxies, about 120 ly across (
Hilker M. et. al., 2007).
NGC 1316NGC 1316 is a lenticular galaxy about 70 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. NGC 1316 is a radio galaxy. It is the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky .-Structure and formation:...
is a notably bright
elliptical galaxyAn elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flat and in size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars...
within the
Fornax ClusterAt a distance of approximately 62.0 Mly , the Fornax Cluster is the second richest cluster of galaxies within 100 million light-years, although it is much smaller than the Virgo Cluster. It lies primarily in the constellation Fornax, and may be associated with the nearby Eridanus Group...
. The galaxy is also one of the brightest
radioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
sources in the sky.
UDFj-39546284UDFj-39546284 is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed as we see it 13.2 billion years ago, around 480 million years after the Big Bang. It is the oldest galaxy found and exceeds the previous distance record holder by roughly 150 million years. It could remain so until the anticipated launch...
, a galaxy which was identified as the most distant object in the universe from Earth as of January 2011, is located in Fornax. It was detected using the Hubble UDF image.
HIP 13044 bHIP 13044 b is a Jupiter-like extrasolar planet orbiting the old and metal-poor red giant star HIP 13044, which is situated approximately 2,000 light years away from the Earth in the constellation Fornax. Its discovery was announced on November 18, 2010 after observations using the FEROS...
is an exoplanet in the constellation, reported in November 2010, that was discovered to have originated outside of the galaxy.
Equivalents
In
Chinese astronomyAstronomy in China has a very long history, with historians considering that "they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs."...
, the stars that correspond to Fornax are located within the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎,
Xī Fāng Bái Hǔ).
External links