Fornax, the Furnace, is a faint southern constellation named for a chemist’s furnace, a window onto a dwarf galaxy and some of the deepest images ever taken.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 3 |
|---|---|
| nearest star of the figure | Dalim, 46.4 light-years (14.2 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | Nu Fornacis, 371 light-years (114 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 8 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Fornax
Fornax was introduced by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille as the chemical furnace, honouring the laboratory apparatus of chemistry among his southern instruments. Its figure is a sparse line of three faint stars led by Dalim, inside a loop of the river Eridanus. It is best seen on autumn evenings in the south and low in the winter sky from the north.
Fornax looks away from the plane of the Milky Way, so little dust stands in the way and the deep universe shows through. It holds the Fornax Dwarf, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and the Fornax Cluster of galaxies far beyond it. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, one of the deepest images of the universe, was taken in an apparently empty spot in Fornax.
What you see in the piece
The furnace has only three stars, and they are far from one another in depth: Dalim is close to the Sun while Nu Fornacis lies many times farther off. Flown out to, the line points away from Earth.
Questions
What is in the constellation Fornax?
The Fornax Dwarf galaxy, a satellite of the Milky Way; the Fornax Cluster of galaxies; and the field of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.
How far away are the stars of Fornax?
The nearest star of the figure is Dalim, 46.4 light-years (14.2 pc) away, and the farthest is Nu Fornacis, 371 light-years (114 pc).