[56] The potential area to be covered needed to be at the poles of the telescope's orbit for continuous observing, with the final choice resting upon the discovery of a quasar, QSO J2233-606, in the field. [29] The system is 186 light-years distant.

The nearest star to the Earth with an exoplanet is HD 4308 which is about 71.94 Light Years. [3][4] De Houtman included it in his southern star catalogue the same year under the Dutch name Den Indiaenschen Exster, op Indies Lang ghenaemt "the Indian magpie, named Lang in the Indies",[5] by this meaning a particular bird with a long beak—a hornbill, a bird native to the East Indies.

The primary component is a yellow-white subgiant star with the stellar classification of F6IV and a visual magnitude of 5.1.

Hubble’s exquisite sharpness plucked out an underlying population of infant stars embedded in the nebula NGC 346 that are still forming from gravitationally collapsing gas clouds. It is in fact one of the most luminous stars known. Tucana is the 48th constellation in size, occupying an area of 295 square degrees. [21], Lambda Tucanae is an optical double—that is, the name is given to two stars (Lambda1 and Lambda2) which appear close together from our viewpoint, but are in fact far apart in space. Located near the tail of the toucan,[9] Beta Tucanae's two brightest components, Beta1 and Beta2 are separated by an angle of 27 arcseconds and have apparent magnitudes of 4.4 and 4.5 respectively. Alpha Tucanae is the brightest star in the constellation. [21] Known as Kappa Tucanae B, it has an apparent magnitude of 7.58 and spectral type K1V.

[6] It was interpreted on Chinese charts as Niǎohuì "bird's beak", and in England as "Brasilian Pye", while Johannes Kepler and Giovanni Battista Riccioli termed it Anser Americanus "American Goose", and Caesius as Pica Indica. The Tucana Dwarf is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy with an apparent magnitude of 15.7. If you know of a star that is nearer or further then do let me know in the comments and I'll add it to the site. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille labelled them Alpha to Rho in 1756, but omitted Omicron and Xi, and labelled a pair of stars close together Lambda Tucanae, and a group of three stars Beta Tucanae. Located about 65 million light-years away, in the southern constellation of Tucana, NGC 406 is about 60 000 light-years across, roughly half the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It has a central bar structure. It is approximately 373 light-years from Earth. Responsible for creating 12 southern constellations, Tucana is another of the duos designs that was based on wildlife. All messages will be reviewed before being displayed. It is possible that it used to be a barred spiral galaxy once, but its structure was interrupted by interactions with the Milky Way. Tucana Constellation Map, by IAU and Sky&Telescope magazine. There is evidence that suggests that the two galaxies have been gravitationally bound for a long time. The Bayer designation Beta Tucanae refers to a group of six stars in Tucana that are loosely bound into a star system. It has a visual magnitude of 4.49 and is approximately 374 light years distant from the Sun.

In the end, the name Tucana won out.

It is a yellow-white main sequence dwarf belonging to the spectral class F9.5V. [39] The composition and mass of this star are very similar to the Sun, with a slightly lower mass and an estimated age of three billion years. It appears as a patch of light spanning about 3 degrees.

In a moderate-sized amateur telescope NGC 406 would appear as a faint hazy blob, like thousands of others across the sky, and none of the spectacular fine detail in the Hubble picture could be made out. The brighter component has a magnitude 13.5 star for a companion, and the secondary component has a 6th magnitude companion. It is 2.66 times more luminous than the Sun. [9], Although he depicted Tucana on his chart, Bayer did not assign its stars Bayer designations.

Only 14,700 light-years distant from Earth, it is thought to be around 12 billion years old. The neighboring constellations are Eridanus, Grus, Hydrus, Indus, Octans and Phoenix. A modern constellation created in 1603 by the astronomer Johann Bayer.

[23] The Kappa Tucanae system shines with a combined apparent magnitude of 4.25, and is located around 68 light-years from the Solar System. [31] It is around four times as massive as our Sun. Near to 47 Tucana on the sky, and often seen in wide-field photographs showing it, are two much more distant globular clusters associated with the SMC: NGC 121, 10 arcminutes away from the bigger cluster's edge, and Lindsay 8.

Like neighboring 47 Tucanae, NGC 362 is a Shapley class III cluster and among the brightest globular clusters in the sky. *Note: The number of Non-Messier Deep Space Object Count relates to how many are covered on this site not how many there are.

These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. [55], The barred spiral galaxy NGC 7408 is located 3 degrees northwest of Delta Tucanae, and was initially mistaken for a planetary nebula. The inner planet has a mass at least 6.6 times that of the Earth and orbits the star every 3.93404 days.

The third component in the system is a blue, class O supergiant which may not be physically associated with the other two stars and may itself be a close binary. [11], The layout of the brighter stars of Tucana has been likened to a kite. There are 6 stars that make up the main constellation.

The Tucana Dwarf contains only very old stars and has no galactic neighbours.

[41] As of 2009, no planet has been discovered in orbit around this star. By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. [9] It is an orange subgiant of spectral type K3III around 199 light-years distant from the Solar System. Tucana first appeared on a 35-centimetre-diameter (14 in) celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius and was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometriaof 1603.

Fragmentary galaxies like the SMC are considered primitive building blocks of larger galaxies. SMC can only be seen from the southern hemisphere and lower northern latitudes. Nestled among other starburst regions with the small galaxy, the nebula NGC 346 alone contains more than 2,500 infant stars. [20], Beta, Delta and Kappa are multiple star systems containing six, two and four stars respectively.
NGC 104 – 47 Tucanae, image: NASA, Hubble, Wikisky. The brightest star in Tucana is Alpha Tucanae and is located about 53.26 light years from the Sun. Most of these types of galaxies existed far away, when the universe was much younger. Gamma Tucanae is a yellow-white giant with the stellar classification of F1 III. It was created by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman to fill in the voids in the astronomical charts. It is a companion galaxy to the Milky Way and a member of the Local Group of galaxies. Multiple Planet Systems from the HARPS Volume Limited Sample", "The HARPS Search for Southern Extra-solar Planets.

[14] A cool star with a surface temperature of 4300 K, it is 424 times as luminous as the sun and 37 times its diameter. Presumably, de Houtman was describing the hornbill, a different bird that is also native to the East Indies and Malaysia. The oldest population is 4.5 billion years, roughly the age of our Sun.