Volans

Look up at the southern sky.

You can find a shape of stars. It is a flying fish.

This fish can jump from the water. It glides through the air on wings. Long ago, people drew it on a globe. They also put it in a star book. One star looks like our sun. It has a planet near it. You can see it in the night sky.

Look into the southern sky to find Volans.

This constellation is a flying fish. Its name is short for Piscis Volans. This name means flying fish.

Long ago, two men studied the stars. They were Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Petrus Plancius used their work to make twelve new shapes. He put Volans on a globe in 1598. Later, a man named Johann Bayer put it in a star book. In 1844, John Herschel suggested the short name. Most people use it now.

A flying fish is a fish that can jump. It glides through the air on wings.

In old maps, this fish is often near a ship.

There is much to see in Volans. You can find two double stars with a small telescope. You can also find galaxies. One is the Lindsay-Shapley ring. It is a ring galaxy. This galaxy is 300 million light-years away. It was made by a collision long ago. Another galaxy is called NGC 2442. It is a spiral galaxy.

It is 50 million light-years away.

Volans is a special shape of stars in the southern sky. It represents a flying fish. The name Volans is a short version of its old name, Piscis Volans. This constellation helps us understand the patterns of the stars. It is one of many shapes used to map the sky.

Looking at Volans is like looking at a story written in light.

A flying fish is a type of tropical fish. These fish can jump out of the water. Then they glide through the air on their wings. In very old star maps, this fish was often shown near a ship called Argo Navis. It was also shown being chased by a predator fish. That predator is the constellation Dorado.

You can imagine the fish swimming and then flying through the dark sky.

People have been mapping this constellation for a long time. Two Dutch navigators named Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman studied these stars. Petrus Plancius used their work to create twelve new constellations. He put Volans on a star globe in 1598. Later, Johann Bayer included it in his famous star atlas in 1603. In 1844, John Herschel suggested using the shorter name.

This shorter name is what most people use today.

There are many interesting things to find inside Volans. You can use a small telescope to see two double stars. These are named Gamma Volantis and Epsilon Volantis. There are also distant galaxies like NGC 2442. This spiral galaxy is 50 million light-years away. Another object is the Lindsay-Shapley ring. It is a ring galaxy located 300 million light-years away.

This ring was formed by a collision many millions of years ago.

Volans connects the stars to the world we know. It shows how humans use animals to name the sky. Even modern science finds new things there. In May 2023, a telescope called TESS found a new planet in Volans. This planet is named TOI-715 b. It is about 1.55 times larger than Earth. It sits in a zone where life might be possible.

This shows that the stars are still full of new discoveries.

Volans is a constellation located in the southern sky. It represents a flying fish. The name Volans is a shortened form of its original name, Piscis Volans. This constellation is part of a group of shapes used to map the stars. It serves as a way for astronomers to organize and identify specific regions of space.

The constellation represents a tropical fish. This specific type of fish can jump out of the water. Once it is in the air, it can glide using wings. In early celestial maps, the flying fish was often shown near a ship called Argo Navis. It was also depicted being chased by a predator. This predatory fish is represented by the nearby constellation Dorado.

History shows how our maps of the sky have changed. Two Dutch navigators, Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, observed these stars in the late 16th century. Petrus Plancius used their observations to create twelve new constellations. He first included Volans on a celestial globe in 1598. This globe was published in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius. In 1603, Johann Bayer added the constellation to his star atlas, Uranometria. He called it Piscis Volans. Later, in 1844, John Herschel proposed shortening the name to Volans. This change was eventually adopted by everyone.

Many individual stars make up the pattern of Volans. In 1756, Lacaille gave twelve stars in the constellation specific designations. These stars were labeled Alpha through Kappa. He also labeled two stars as Gamma and Kappa. Within the constellation, there are two notable double stars. These can be seen using a small telescope. They are named Gamma Volantis and Epsilon Volantis. The magnitudes of the Gamma stars are 3.8 and 5.6. The magnitudes of the Epsilon stars are 4.4 and 7.3.

Volans contains several deep-sky objects that are very far away. One such object is the Lindsay-Shapley ring, also known as AM0644-741. This is a ring galaxy located 300 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered in 1960 near the Large Magellanic Cloud. This galaxy has a very unusual shape. This shape resulted from a collision that happened many millions of years ago. The galaxy has a blue ring that is 150,000 light-years in diameter. This ring was formed by a shock wave from the collision. The shock wave created a ring of hot blue stars. The center is a yellow core made from the cores of the original galaxies.

Other distant objects exist within the borders of Volans. NGC 2442 is an intermediate-spiral galaxy. It is located about 50 million light-years away from Earth. There is also an object known as Graham's Object. It is also called Das Rheingold or the Nibelungen Ring. This is a ring-shaped galaxy located at specific coordinates in the sky. Astronomers also study variable stars in this region. These are stars called R and S Volantis. In 2003, the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa noted that more data is needed on their light curves.

Modern technology continues to find new things in this constellation. In May 2023, the TESS mission discovered an exoplanet in Volans. This planet is named TOI-715 b. It is the first exoplanet found in a conservative habitable zone. A habitable zone is a region where conditions might allow life. This planet is about 1.55 times larger than Earth. Additionally, the star HD 76700 is located about 195 light-years away. This star is similar to our sun and has a planet of its own. These discoveries show how Volans remains important to science today.