Constellation|
name | Fornax |
| abbreviation | For |
| genitive | Fornacis |
| symbology | the furnace |
| RA | 3 |
| dec | −30 |
| areatotal | 398 |
| arearank | 41st |
| numbermainstars | 2 |
| numberbfstars | 29 |
| numberstarsplanets | 1 |
| numberbrightstars | 0 |
| numbernearbystars | 2 |
| brighteststarname | α For |
| starmagnitude | 3.87 |
| neareststarname | HD 14412 |
| stardistance | 41.35 |
| numbermessierobjects | None |
| meteorshowers | None |
| bordering | Cetus
Sculptor
Phoenix
Eridanus |
| latmax | 50 |
| latmin | 90 |
| month | December |
| notes | |
(
IPA: , ) is a southern
constellation which was first introduced by
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille under the name ''Fornax Chemica'' (Latin for ''
chemical furnace''), representing a small solid-fuel heater formerly used for heating
chemical experiments.
The
Fornax Dwarf galaxy is in Fornax.
The
Hubble Ultra Deep Field is located within Fornax.
At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain, a team from University of Queensland described 40 unknown "dwarf" galaxies in this constellation.
They also described Fornax as being "on Earth's doorstep", because α Fornacis is only about 46 light-years away.
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, about 120 light-years across.
"Tens of millions of stars are squashed into what is a tiny volume by galaxy standards," the observatory said in a statement.
The
Fornax Cluster, a small
cluster of galaxies lies primarily in the constellation Fornax.