Dorado (, ) 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 first constellati ...

in the

Southern Sky 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 ...

. It was named in the late 16th century and is now 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 covering the entire celestial sph ...

. Its name refers to the

mahi-mahi The mahi-mahi ( ) or common dolphinfish (''Coryphaena hippurus'') is a surface-dwelling ray-finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical, and subtropical waters worldwide. It is also widely called dorado (not to be confused with '' Salmin ...

(''Coryphaena hippurus''), which is known as ''dorado'' ("golden") in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, although it has also been depicted as a

swordfish The swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as the broadbill in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are the sole member of the Family (biology), family Xiphiidae. They ...

. Dorado contains most of the

Large Magellanic Cloud The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a dwarf galaxy and satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around , the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, Sagittarius Dwarf ...

, the remainder being in the constellation Mensa. The South

Ecliptic pole An orbital pole is either point at the ends of the orbital normal, an imaginary line segment that runs through a focus of an orbit (of a revolving body like a planet, moon or satellite) and is perpendicular (or normal) to the orbital plane. Pr ...

also lies within this constellation. Even though the name Dorado is not

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

but Spanish, astronomers give it the Latin

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

form ''Doradus'' when naming its stars; it is treated (like the adjacent asterism

Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of Ptolemy's 48 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". ...

) as a feminine proper name of Greek origin ending in -ō (like ''Io'' or ''Callisto'' or ''Argo''), which have a genitive ending ''-ūs''.

History

Dorado was one of twelve constellations named by

Petrus Plancius Petrus Plancius (; born Pieter Platevoet ; 1552 – 15 May 1622) was a Dutch- Flemish astronomer, cartographer and clergyman. Born, in Dranouter, now in Heuvelland, West Flanders, he studied theology in Germany and England. At the age of 24 ...

from the observations of

Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser (occasionally Petrus Theodorus; – 11 September 1596) was a Dutch navigator and celestial cartographer who mapped several constellations on the southern celestial hemisphere. Voyages and star observation Little is ...

and

Frederick de Houtman Frederick de Houtman ( – 21 October 1627) was a Dutch explorer, navigator, and colonial governor who sailed on the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies from 1595 until 1597, during which time he made observations of the southern cel ...

. It appeared: * On a celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius with

Jodocus Hondius Jodocus Hondius (Latinized version of his Dutch name: ''Joost de Hondt'') (17 October 1563 – 12 February 1612) was a Flemish and Dutch engraver and cartographer. He is sometimes called Jodocus Hondius the Elder to distinguish him from h ...

. * First depiction in a celestial atlas, in

Johann Bayer Johann Bayer (; 1572 – 7 March 1625) was a German lawyer and uranographer (celestial cartographer). He was born in Rain in 1572. In 1592, aged 20, he began his study of philosophy and law at the University of Ingolstadt, after which he ...

's ''

Uranometria is a star atlas produced by Johann Bayer. It was published in Augsburg in 1603 by Christoph Mang (''Christophorus Mangus'') under the full title (from Latin: ''Uranometria, containing charts of all the constellations, drawn by a new method an ...

'' of 1603. * In

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...

's edition of

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, ; 14 December 154624 October 1601), generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer of the Renaissance, known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations. He ...

's star list in the ''

Rudolphine Tables The ''Rudolphine Tables'' () consist of a star catalogue and planetary tables published by Johannes Kepler in 1627, using observational data collected by Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). The tables are named in memory of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emper ...

'' of 1627; this was the first time that it was given the alternative name Xiphias, the

. The name Dorado ultimately became dominant and was adopted by the IAU. Dorado represents a

dolphinfish ''Coryphaena'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes known as the dolphinfishes, and is currently the only known genus in the family Coryphaenidae. The generic name is from Greek κορυφή (''koryphē'', "crown, top") and -αινα (-''aina ...

; it has also been called the goldfish because Dorado are gold-colored.

Features

Stars

Alpha Doradus Alpha Doradus, Latinized from α Doradus, is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Dorado. The distance to this system, as measured using the parallax method, is about . This is a binary star system with an o ...

is a blue-white star of magnitude 3.3, 176 light-years from Earth. It is the brightest star in Dorado.

Beta Doradus Beta Doradus, Latinized from β Doradus, is the second brightest star in the southern constellation of Dorado. It is a Classical Cepheid variable, with an apparent magnitude that varies between 3.46 and 4.08. Based upon parallax measurem ...

is a notably bright

Cepheid variable A Cepheid variable () is a type of variable star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature. It changes in brightness, with a well-defined stable period (typically 1–100 days) and amplitude. Cepheids are important cosmi ...

star. It is a yellow-tinged supergiant star that has a minimum magnitude of 4.1 and a maximum magnitude of 3.5. One thousand and forty light-years from Earth, Beta Doradus has a period of 9 days and 20 hours.

R Doradus R Doradus (HD 29712 or P Doradus) is a red giant variable star in the far-southern constellation Dorado, close to the border with Reticulum. Its distance from Earth is . Having a angular diameter, uniform disk diameter of , it is though ...

is one of the many

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

s in Dorado. S Dor, 9.721

hypergiant A hypergiant ( luminosity class 0 or Ia+) is a very rare type of star that has an extremely high luminosity, mass, size and mass loss because of its extreme stellar winds. The term ''hypergiant'' is defined as luminosity class 0 (zero) in the MK ...

in the

, is the prototype of

S Doradus variable Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are rare, massive, evolved stars that show unpredictable and sometimes dramatic variations in their spectra and brightness. They are also known as S Doradus variables after S Doradus, one of the brightest stars of th ...

stars. The variable star

5.73 has the largest-known apparent size of any star other than the Sun. Gamma Doradus is the prototype of the

Gamma Doradus variable Gamma Doradus variables are variable stars which display variations in luminosity due to non-radial pulsations of their surface. The stars are typically young, early F or late A type main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a classifi ...

stars.

Supernova 1987A SN 1987A was a Type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It occurred approximately from Earth and was the closest observed supernova since Kepler's Supernova in 1604. Light and neutrinos f ...

was the closest supernova to occur since the invention of the telescope.

SNR 0509-67.5 SNR 0509-67.5 is a Supernova remnant, remnant from a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), that is 160,000 light years away in the constellation of Dorado. It displays a clear shock wave shock shell pattern. It was probably a Type Ia su ...

is the remnant of an unusually energetic Type 1a supernova from about 400 years ago.

HE 0437-5439 HE 0437-5439 is a massive, unbound hypervelocity star (HVS), also called HVS3. It is a main sequence B-type star located in the Dorado constellation. It was discovered in 2005 with the Kueyen telescope, which is part of the European So ...

is a

hypervelocity star In astronomy, stellar kinematics is the Observational astronomy, observational study or measurement of the kinematics or motions of stars through space. Stellar kinematics encompasses the measurement of stellar Velocity, velocities in the Milky ...

escaping from the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

Magellanic Cloud The Magellanic Clouds (''Magellanic system'' or ''Nubeculae Magellani'') are two irregular dwarf galaxies in the southern celestial hemisphere. Orbiting the Milky Way galaxy, these satellite galaxies are members of the Local Group. Because both ...

system. Dorado is also the location of the South

, which lies near the fish's head. The pole was called "Polus Doradinalis" by

Philipp von Zesen Philipp von Zesen, also Filip Cösius or ''Caesius'' (originally Ph. Caesien, Filip Zesen, Filip von Zesen, in Latin Philippus Caesius à Fürstenau, Philippus Caesius à Zesen) (8 October 1619 O.S. – 13 November 1689 O.S.) was a German poet, ...

, aka Caesius. In early 2020, the exoplanet TOI-700 d was discovered orbiting the star TOI-700 in Dorado. This is the first potentially Earth-like exoplanet to be discovered by the

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. It was launched on ...

Deep-sky objects

Because Dorado contains part of the

, it is rich in deep sky objects. The Large Magellanic Cloud, 25,000 light-years in diameter, is a

satellite galaxy A satellite galaxy is a smaller companion galaxy that travels on bound orbits within the gravitational potential of a more massive and Luminosity, luminous host galaxy (also known as the primary galaxy). Satellite galaxies and their constituents ...

of the Milky Way Galaxy, located at a distance of 179,000 light-years. It has been deformed by its gravitational interactions with the larger Milky Way. In 1987, it became host to

SN 1987A SN 1987A was a Type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It occurred approximately from Earth and was the closest observed supernova since Kepler's Supernova in 1604. Light and neutrinos ...

, the first supernova of 1987 and the closest since 1604. This 25,000-light-year-wide galaxy contains over 10,000 million stars. All coordinates given are for Epoch

J2000.0 In astronomy, an epoch or reference epoch is a moment in time used as a reference point for some time-varying astronomical quantity. It is useful for the celestial coordinates or orbital elements of a celestial body, as they are subject to pe ...

* N 180B is an

emission nebula An emission nebula is a nebula formed of ionized gases that emit light of various wavelengths. The most common source of ionization is high-energy ultraviolet photons emitted from a nearby hot star. Among the several different types of emission n ...

located in the

. * NGC 1566 ( RA 04h 20m 00s Dec -56° 56.3′) is a face-on spiral galaxy. It gives its name to the NGC 1566 Group of galaxies. * NGC 1755 (RA 04h 55m 13s Dec -68° 12.2′) is a globular cluster. *

NGC 1763 NGC 1763 (also known as N11 B, LH 10 or ESO 85-EN20) is an emission nebula with an embedded star cluster in the Dorado constellation in the Large Magellanic Cloud, It is very bright, very large and very irregular. Its apparent size is about 3.0-5 ...

(RA 04h 56m 49s Dec -68° 24.5′) is a bright nebula associated with three type B stars. *

NGC 1761 NGC 1761 (also known as GC 980, JH 2710, LH 9) is an open cluster in the Dorado constellation in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It encompasses a group of about 50 massive hot young stars. These stars are among the largest stars known anywhere in t ...

(RA 04h 56m 37s Dec -66° 28.4') is an open cluster. *

NGC 1820 NGC 1820 (also known as ESO 85-SC39) is an open cluster in the Dorado constellation. It is located within the Large Magellanic Cloud. It has a magnitude of 9.0 and was discovered by John Herschel on 2 January 1837. References Dorado ESO ...

(RA 05h 04m 02s Dec -67° 15.9′) is an open cluster. * NGC 1850 (RA 05h 08m 44s Dec -68° 45.7′) is a globular cluster. * NGC 1854 (RA 05h 09m 19s Dec -68° 50.8′) is a globular cluster. * NGC 1869 (RA 05h 13m 56s Dec -67° 22.8′) is an open cluster. *

NGC 1901 NGC 1901 is an open cluster in the Dorado Constellation. It has a bright middle and is a little rich, with stars from 7th magnitude downwards. The celestial object was discovered on 30 December 1836 by the British astronomer John Hers ...

(RA 05h 18m 15s Dec -68° 26.2′) is an open cluster. *

NGC 1910 NGC 1910, or LH-41, is an OB association in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Location NGC 1910's right ascension is and its declination is -69° 14′ 12.1″. Its angular size is 1.54 arcminutes. N119 The cluster has an associated HII region ...

(RA 05h 18m 43s Dec -69° 13.9′) is an open cluster. *

NGC 1936 NGC 1936 (also known as IC 2127 and ESO 056-EN111) is an emission nebula which is part of the larger LMC-N44 nebula located in the Dorado constellation in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1834 and added to the C ...

(RA 05h 22m 14s Dec -67° 58.7′) is a bright nebula and is one of four NGC objects in close proximity, the others being NGC 1929, NGC 1934 and

NGC 1935 NGC 1935 (also known as ESO 56-EN110 and IC 2126) is an emission nebula which is part of the larger LMC-N44 nebula in the Dorado constellation. NGC 1935 is also located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1834 a ...

. * NGC 1978 (RA 05h 28m 36s Dec -66° 14.0′) is an open cluster. * NGC 2002 (RA 05h 30m 17s Dec -66° 53.1′) is an open cluster. *

NGC 2014 NGC 2014 is a red emission nebula surrounding an open cluster of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, at a distance of about 163,000 light-years. The nebula was discovered on 3 August 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. Together with NGC ...

(RA 05h 44m 12.7s Dec −67° 42′ 57″) is a red emission nebula. *

NGC 2020 NGC 2020 is an HII Region surrounding the Wolf-Rayet star BAT99-59. It is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The nebula was discovered on 30 December 1836 by polymath John Herschel. Together with NGC 2014 it makes up the Cosmic Reef. Ref ...

(RA 05h 44m 12.7s Dec −67° 42′ 57″) is an HII region surrounding a

Wolf–Rayet star Wolf–Rayet stars, often abbreviated as WR stars, are a rare heterogeneous set of stars with unusual spectroscopy, spectra showing prominent broad emission lines of ionised helium and highly ionised nitrogen or carbon. The spectra indicate very ...

. * NGC 2027 (RA 05h 35m 00s Dec -66° 55.0′) is an open cluster. * NGC 2032 (RA 05h 35m 21s Dec -67° 34.1′; also known as "Seagull Nebula") is a nebula complex that contains four NGC designations: NGC 2029, NGC 2032, NGC 2035 and NGC 2040. Galaxy with a view

* NGC 2074 (RA 05h 39m 03.0s Dec −69° 29′ 54″) is an emission nebula. *

NGC 2078 NGC 2078 is an emission nebula with an apparent magnitude of 10.9, located in the constellation Dorado. It was discovered on September 24, 1826, by James Dunlop. References {{Dorado Emission nebulae category:Dorado 2078 In contem ...

(RA 05h 39m 54s Dec −69° 44′ 54″) is an emission nebula. * NGC 2080, also called the "Ghost Head Nebula", is an emission nebula that is 50 light-years wide in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is named for the two distinct white patches that it possesses, which are regions of recent

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space—sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions"—Jeans instability, collapse and form stars. As a branch of astronomy, sta ...

. The western portion is colored green from

doubly ionized oxygen In astronomy and atomic physics, doubly ionized oxygen is the ion O2+ (O III in spectroscopic notation). Ion Its emission forbidden lines in the visible spectrum fall primarily at the wavelength 500.7 nm, and secondarily at 495.9 n ...

, the southern portion is red from

hydrogen alpha Hydrogen-alpha, typically shortened to H-alpha or Hα, is a deep-red visible spectral line of the hydrogen atom with a wavelength of 656.28 nm in air and 656.46 nm in vacuum. It is the first spectral line in the Balmer series and is emit ...

emissions, and the center region is colored yellow from both oxygen and hydrogen emissions. The western white patch, A1, has one massive, recently formed star inside. The eastern patch, A2, has several stars hidden in its dust. *

Tarantula Nebula The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), forming its south-east corner (from Earth, Earth's perspective). Discovery The Tarantula Nebula was observed by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaill ...

is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, named for its spiderlike shape. It is also designated 30 Doradus, as it is visible to the naked eye as a slightly out-of-focus star. Larger than any nebula in the Milky Way at 1,000 light-years in diameter, it is also brighter, because it is illuminated by the open star cluster

NGC 2070 NGC 2070 (also known as Caldwell 103) is a large open cluster and candidate super star cluster forming the heart of the bright region in the centre-south-east of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This cluster was discovered by French astronomer Nicolas ...

, which has at its center the star cluster

R136 R136 (formerly known as RMC 136 from the Radcliffe Observatory Magellanic Clouds catalogue) is the central concentration of stars in the NGC 2070 star cluster, which lies at the centre of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. W ...

. The illuminating stars are

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 temperatures of supergiant stars range ...

s. * NGC 2164 (RA 05h 58m 53s Dec -68° 30.9′) is a globular cluster. * N44 is a

superbubble In astronomy a superbubble or supershell is a cavity which is hundreds of light years across and is populated with hot (106 K) gas atoms, less dense than the surrounding interstellar medium, blown against that medium and carved out by mult ...

in the Large Magellanic Cloud that is 1,000 light-years wide. Its overall structure is shaped by the 40 hot stars towards its center. Within the superbubble of N44 is a smaller bubble catalogued as N44F. It is approximately 35 light-years in diameter and is shaped by an incredibly hot star at its center, which has a

stellar wind A stellar wind is a flow of gas ejected from the stellar atmosphere, upper atmosphere of a star. It is distinguished from the bipolar outflows characteristic of young stars by being less collimated, although stellar winds are not generally spheri ...

speed of 7 million kilometers per hour. N44F also features dust columns with probable

hidden inside.

Equivalents

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 China, ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categori ...

, the stars of Dorado are in two of

Xu Guangqi Xu Guangqi or Hsü Kuang-ch'i (April 24, 1562– November 8, 1633), also known by his baptismal name Paul or Paul Siu, was a Chinese agronomist, astronomer, mathematician, scholar-bureaucrat, politician, and writer during the late Ming dynasty ...

's Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, ''Jìnnánjíxīngōu''): the White Patches Attached (夾白, ''Jiābái'') and the

Goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of the order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the w ...

(金魚, ''Jīnyú'').AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 7 月 27 日

Namesakes

* ''Dorado ''(SS-248) and ''Dorado'' (SS-526), two United States Navy submarines, were named after the same sea creature as the constellation.

Gallery

NGC1706 - HST - Potw1943a.tif, NGC 1706 is a spiral galaxy, about 230 million light-years away.

References

;Notes * The above deep sky objects appear in ''

Norton's Star Atlas ''Norton's Star Atlas'' is a set of 16 celestial charts, first published in 1910 and currently in its 20th edition under the editorship of Ian Ridpath. The ''Star Atlas'' covers the entire northern and southern sky, with accompanying reference inf ...

'', 1973 edition. * Co-ordinates are obtained fro
Uranometria Chart Index
an
Skyview
* Images of the deep sky objects described herein may be viewed a
Skyview
;Citations

Sources

* *

External links

Peoria Astronomical Society - Dorado

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorado Southern constellations Constellations listed by Petrus Plancius