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Fornax Star Constellations Astronomy Information

Fornax constellation was named for the first time by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756, and its name signifies furnace in Latin. Its brightest stars are AlphaBeta, and Nu Fornacis (Alpha2 Canum Venaticorum variable which indicates the star’s strong magnetic field). Epsilon Fornacis is a binary star (located 104 light-years away from Earth), and Omega Fornacis is another binary star of the constellation (located 470 light-years away from Earth), while Kappa Fornacis is a triple star. There are also stars in this constellation that host planets: Lambda2 Fornacis (Sun-like star), HD 20868 (an orange dwarf), WASP-72 (a main-sequence star), HR 858 (hosts at least three planets), and HD 20781 and HD 20782 which are a Sun-like binary orbiting each other and each has a planet.

The image credits go to IAU.

NGC 1360 (Robin’s Egg Nebula) is a planetary nebula residing in the Fornax constellation. As for the constellation’s other deep-sky objects, there is NGC 1049 which is a globular cluster, NGC 1097 (Caldwell 67) barred spiral galaxy, and Fornax dwarf galaxy. Fornax cluster which is a vast space filled with galaxies is another world of and in itself and encourage the reader to read more about it here.

NGC 1097. The image credits go to ESO.
NGC 1360 (Robin’s Egg Nebula). The image credits go to the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter Schulman Telescope courtesy Adam Block.