Fornax is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 modern constellations.
The Hubble sequence is a morphological classification scheme for galaxies published by Edwin Hubble in 1926. It is often colloquially known as the Hubble tuning-fork diagram because the shape in which it is traditionally represented resembles a tuning fork. It was invented by John Henry Reynolds and Sir James Jeans.
An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the four main classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hubble sequence and 1936 work The Realm of the Nebulae, along with spiral and lenticular galaxies. Elliptical (E) galaxies are, together with lenticular galaxies (S0) with their large-scale disks, and ES galaxies with their intermediate scale disks, a subset of the "early-type" galaxy population.
Messier 84 or M84, also known as NGC 4374, is a giant elliptical or lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. Charles Messier discovered the object in 1781 in a systematic search for "nebulous objects" in the night sky. It is the 84th object in the Messier Catalogue and in the heavily populated core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, part of the local supercluster.
NGC 3115 is a field lenticular (S0) galaxy in the constellation Sextans. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 22, 1787. At about 32 million light-years away from Earth, it is several times bigger than the Milky Way. It is a lenticular (S0) galaxy because it contains a disk and a central bulge of stars, but without a detectable spiral pattern. NGC 3115 is seen almost exactly edge-on, but was nevertheless mis-classified as elliptical. There is some speculation that NGC 3115, in its youth, was a quasar.
The Antennae Galaxies are a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Corvus. They are currently going through a starburst phase, in which the collision of clouds of gas and dust, with entangled magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation. They were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.
NGC 1569 is a dwarf irregular galaxy in Camelopardalis. The galaxy is relatively nearby and consequently, the Hubble Space Telescope can easily resolve the stars within the galaxy. The distance to the galaxy was previously believed to be only 2.4 Mpc. However, in 2008 scientists studying images from Hubble calculated the galaxy's distance at nearly 11 million light-years away, about 4 million light-years farther than previous thought, meaning it is a member of the IC 342 group of galaxies.
NGC 4889 is an E4 supergiant elliptical galaxy. It was discovered in 1785 by the British astronomer Frederick William Herschel I, who catalogued it as a bright, nebulous patch. The brightest galaxy within the northern Coma Cluster, it is located at a median distance of 94 million parsecs from Earth. At the core of the galaxy is a supermassive black hole that heats the intracluster medium through the action of friction from infalling gases and dust. The gamma ray bursts from the galaxy extend out to several million light years of the cluster.
The Eridanus Group, sometimes called the Eridanus Cloud, is a nearby loose grouping of galaxies at a mean distance of approximately 75 Mly in the constellation Eridanus. Redshift values show that there are approximately 200 galaxies associated with the group, approximately 70% of which are spiral and irregular type galaxies while the remaining 30% are elliptical and lenticular types.
NGC 1600 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Eridanus, 149 Mly (46 Mpc) away from Earth.
IC 2006 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. The galaxy was discovered on 3 October 1897 by the American astronomer Lewis A. Swift. It is estimated to be around 60 to 70 million light years away, in the Fornax Cluster. The galaxy is one of the smaller in the Fornax cluster, with a diameter of only 35 000 light-years.
NGC 4458 is an elliptical galaxy located about 54 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 12, 1784. NGC 4458 is a member of Markarian's Chain which is part of the Virgo Cluster. It is in a pair with the galaxy NGC 4461. NGC 4458 and NGC 4461 are interacting with each other.
NGC 547 is an elliptical galaxy and radio galaxy located in the constellation Cetus. It is located at a distance of circa 220 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 547 is about 120,000 light years across. It was discovered by William Herschel on October 1, 1785. It is a member of the Abell 194 galaxy cluster and is included along with NGC 547 in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.
NGC 1387 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Fornax, in the Fornax Cluster. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 25, 1835.
NGC 1374 is a low-luminosity elliptical galaxy in the southern constellation Fornax. It was discovered by John Herschel on November 29, 1837.
NGC 1375 is a barred lenticular galaxy in the constellation Fornax discovered by John Herschel on November 29, 1837. It is believed to be a member of the Fornax Cluster.
NGC 1400 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. At a distance of 65 million light-years from Earth, it was discovered by John Herschel in 1786. It is a member of the NGC 1407 group, whose brightest member is NGC 1407. The NGC 1407 group is part of the Eridanus Cluster, a cluster of 200 galaxies.
NGC 1460 is a barred lenticular galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. It was discovered by John Herschel on November 28, 1837. It is moving away from the Milky Way at 1341 km/s.
NGC 1379 is a low-luminosity elliptical galaxy in the southern constellation Fornax. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 25, 1835.
NGC 1332 is an almost edge-on elliptical galaxy located in constellation of Eridanus. Situated about 70 million light years away, it is a member of the Eridanus cluster of galaxies, a cluster of about 200 galaxies. It is also the brightest member of the NGC 1332 Group. It was discovered by William Herschel on 9 December 1784.
