Caption:
"The Fornax Dwarf Galaxy
is one of the Milky Way's
neighbouring dwarf galaxies.
These small galaxies
should also contain many very old stars, just as the
Milky Way
does, and a team of astronomers
has now shown that this is indeed the case.
This image was composed from data from the
Digitized Sky Survey 2.
The Milky Way is, like
all large galaxies, thought
to have formed from smaller galaxies
(some like the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy
in the early days of the
observable universe."
(Heavily edited.)
Key characteristics of the
Fornax Dwarf Galaxy:
- It is classified as
dwarf spheriodal galaxy (dSph
which is similar to a
dwarf elliptical galaxy
in having little
interstellar dust,
consisting mainly of old
stars,
and having no star formation.
However, dwarf spheriodal galaxies
are relatively less luminous.
Since the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy consisting
only of old
stars,
yours truly does NOT
know why it looks so blue in the image, unless
the image is a bit
false-color.
- Satellite galaxy
of the Milky Way.
- Member Local Group.
- Distance: 140(10) kpc (460(30) kly).
- In constellation
Fornax---wouldn't you know it.
- Apparent size: 17.0' X 12.6'. Since it is so close, the
Fornax Dwarf is relatively
large on the celestial sphere
which means that any image showing it all will show lots of foreground
stars (many with points
due to their diffraction patterns)
as in this image.
- The Fornax Dwarf is sufficiently
spread out that you can see through it and it NOT see just a blob of
diffraction patterns at least in
this high quality image.
We are just seeing the brightest stars
yours truly guesses.
But because they are old stars
none are supergiants.
There are probably lots of red giants
though which have evolved from relatively low
stellar mass
main-sequence stars: i.e.,
∼< 1 M_☉.
- None of the stars are resolved, of course.
Credit/Permission: ©
ESO,
Digitized Sky Survey 2,
before or circa 2010
(uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
by User:Luiscalcada,
2010) /
CC BY-SA 3.0.
Image link: Wikimedia Commons:
File:Fornax dwarf galaxy.jpg.
Local file: local link: galaxy_fornax_dwarf.html.
File: Galaxies file:
galaxy_fornax_dwarf.html.