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 first constellati ...

in the

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

, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is

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 ...

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 Goo ...

in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 modern constellations. The three brightest stars—

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) 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'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

and

Nu Fornacis Nu Fornacis, Latinisation of names, Latinized from ν Fornacis, is a single, variable star in the southern constellation of Fornax (constellation), Fornax. It is blue-white in hue and faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visu ...

—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 galaxy is a small faint satellite galaxy of 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 ...

. NGC 1316 is a relatively close

radio galaxy A radio galaxy is a galaxy with giant regions of radio emission extending well beyond its visible structure. These energetic radio lobes are powered by jets from its active galactic nucleus. They have luminosities up to 1039 W at radio wav ...

. The Hubble's Ultra-Deep Field is located within Fornax. It is the 41st largest

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 geographic 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 ...

between +50° and -90° during the month of December.

History

The French astronomer

first described the

in French as ''le Fourneau Chymique'' (the Chemical Furnace) with an

alembic An alembic (from , originating from , 'cup, beaker') is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for distillation of liquids. Description The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: * the "" ...

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 ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

. 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 Hemisphere, southern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies south of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere, on which seemingly fixed stars form cons ...

not visible from Europe. All but one honoured instruments that symbolised the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...

. 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; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

in 1922, is "For". 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 astronomical object, celestial objects. It may be implemented in spherical coordinate system, spherical or Cartesian coordinate system, rect ...

, 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 equinox (celestial coordinates), March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in questio ...

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. The declination angle is measured north (positive) or ...

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 alphabet, Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive case, genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer design ...

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 Irradiance, brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction (astronomy), ...

6.5. However, there are no stars brighter than the fourth magnitude. The three brightest stars form a flattish triangle, with

(also called Dalim) and

marking its eastern and western points and Beta Fornacis 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 A blue straggler is a type of star that is more luminous and bluer than expected. Typically identified in a stellar cluster, they have a higher effective temperature than the main sequence turnoff point for the cluster, where ordinary stars b ...

, 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 is a yellow-hued

giant star A giant star has a substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same surface temperature. They lie above the main sequence (luminosity class V in the Yerkes spectral classification) on the Hertzsp ...

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 The red clump is a clustering of red giants in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram at around 5,000 K and absolute magnitude (MV) +0.5, slightly hotter than most red-giant-branch stars of the same luminosity. It is visible as a denser region of ...

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 0.5-0.44 solar masses () and 2.0 ) during their red giant phase. The Su ...

and is currently generating energy through the fusion of helium at its core.

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 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 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 RECONS ...

is a

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that have more mass than the biggest gas giant planets, but less than the least massive main sequence, main-sequence stars. Their mass is approximately 13 to 80 Jupiter mass, times that of Jupiter ()not big en ...

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 , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

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 ...

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 and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...

, discovered by doppler spectroscopy in 2009. The planet has an orbit of around 17.24 days. * HD 20868 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 and HD 20782 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 A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars that is bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards its center. It can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of member stars, all orbiting ...

500,000 light-years from Earth. It is in the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy. NGC 1360 is a

planetary nebula A planetary nebula is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to planets. The ...

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 , from ; pronounced: ) is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, ...

Lyra , from ; pronounced: ) 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 often represented on star ...

at 6.5 arcminutes. Unlike the Ring Nebula, NGC 1360 is clearly elliptical. The Fornax Dwarf galaxy is a

dwarf galaxy A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is so ...

that is part of the

Local Group The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way, where Earth is located. 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 ...

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 milli ...

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 1 E22 m, 45 million Distance measures (cosmology), light years away in the constellation Fornax. It was discovered by William Herschel on 9 October 1790. It is a severely inte ...

is a

barred spiral galaxy A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars. Bars are found in about two thirds of all spiral galaxies in the local universe, and generally affect both the motions of stars and interstellar gas ...

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 with strong spectral emissions indicating ionized gases and a central

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions, of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ...

. Fornax Cluster Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster

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 ...

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 galaxy, galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. Clusters consist o ...

lying at a distance of 19 mega

parsec The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (AU), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and ...

s (62 million

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s). It is the second richest galaxy cluster within 100 million light-years, after the considerably larger

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

, and may be associated with the nearby Eridanus Group. 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. Down are some famous objects in this cluster: NGC 1365 is another

located at a distance of 56 million light-years from Earth. Like NGC 1097, it is also a Seyfert galaxy. Its bar is a center of

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 ...

and shows extensions of the spiral arms' dust lanes. The bright nucleus indicates the presence of an

active galactic nucleus An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that emits a significant amount of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, with characteristics indicating that this luminosity is not produced by the stars. Such e ...

– a galaxy with a

at the center, accreting matter from the bar. It is a 10th magnitude galaxy associated with the

. Fornax A is a

with extensive radio lobes that corresponds to the optical galaxy NGC 1316, a 9th-magnitude galaxy. One of the closer active galaxies to Earth at a distance of 62 million light-years, Fornax A appears in the

optical spectrum The visible spectrum is the band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called ''visible light'' (or simply light). The optical spectrum is sometimes consider ...

as a large

elliptical galaxy An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the three main galaxy morphological classification, classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hub ...

with dust lanes 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 a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with a small

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

. Because it has a high rate of

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 jets producing the radio lobes are not particularly powerful, giving the lobes a more diffuse, knotted structure due to interactions with the

intergalactic medium Intergalactic may refer to: * "Intergalactic" (song), a song by the Beastie Boys * ''Intergalactic'' (TV series), a 2021 UK science fiction TV series * Intergalactic space * Intergalactic travel, travel between galaxies in science fiction and ...

. Associated with this peculiar galaxy is an entire cluster of galaxies. NGC 1399 is a large

in the Southern

Fornax Fornax () is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus (constellation), Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Forna ...

, the central galaxy in 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 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

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel ( ; ; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. Born in the Electorate of Hanover ...

discovered this galaxy on October 22, 1835. NGC 1386 is a

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

located in the constellation Eridanus. It is located at a distance of circa 53 million

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distance, astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by t ...

s from Earth and has apparent dimensions of 3.89' x 1.349'. It is a Seyfert galaxy, the only one in

. NGC 1427A 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 appearan ...

in the

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

and is in the foreground of the cluster's central galaxy NGC 1399. NGC 1460 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 and experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical work. ...

on November 28, 1837. It is moving away from the

1341 km/s. NGC 1460 has a Hubble classification 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 The Hubble Ultra Deep Field seen with MUSE

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field seen with MUSE

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. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

. The

Hubble Ultra Deep Field The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) is a List of deep fields, deep-field image of a small region of outer space, space in the constellation Fornax, containing an estimated 10,000 galaxies. The original data for the image was collected by the Hub ...

is located within Fornax, and the

, a small

, lies primarily within Fornax. At a meeting of the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, a team from

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

described 40 unknown "dwarf" galaxies in this constellation; follow-up observations with the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

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 m ...

Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with ...

revealed that ultra compact dwarfs are much smaller than previously known dwarf galaxies, about across. ` UDFj-39546284 is a candidate protogalaxy located in Fornax,NASA
"NASA's Hubble Finds Most Distant Galaxy Candidate Ever Seen in Universe"
26 January 2011 although recent analyses have suggested it is likely to be a lower redshift source. GRB 190114C was a notable

gamma ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme electromagnetic emissions are second ...

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... hebiggest explosion in the Universe since the

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

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 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

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

History

Characteristics

Features

Stars

Deep-sky objects

Equivalents

See also

Notes

References

Cited texts

External links