Constellation Chart

The Painter or The Painter's Easel

A small and faint constellation lying between the brilliant star Canopus and the Small Magellanic Cloud. Though it contains few bright stars or other objects, it is a relatively strong radio source.

Deep Sky Objects:

Kapteyn's Star is a fairly faint (8.8) red dwarf known for its large proper motion, which is second only to Barnard's Star (in Ophiuchus).

The star's discovery was made nearly a century ago, in 1897, by Professor Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851-1922) of the University of Groningen in Holland. Kapteyn's lasting discovery was that all stars which have a measurable proper motion are part of one of two streams which move in different directions at different speeds.

Kapteyn's Star has a radial velocity of 242 km/s and a distance of 12.73 light years (=parallax of 0.256" or 3.91 pc). The star has a luminosity of only 0.004 suns (i.e. an absolute magnitude of 10.85). It is found roughly 8.5 degrees NW of beta Pictoris (Burnham, p. 1463, has a finder's chart).

Galaxy In Pictor

NGC 1705

The central region of the small galaxy NGC 1705 blazes with the light of thousands of young and old stars in this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

At 17 million light-years away, the individual stars of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 1705 are out of range of all but the sharp eye of Hubble. NGC 1705 is an ideal laboratory to conduct investigations on star formation history. Young, blue, hot stars are strongly concentrated toward the galaxy's center, while older, red, cooler stars are more spread out. This galaxy has been forming new stars throughout its lifetime, but a burst of star-formation activity occurred as recently as 26 to 31 million years ago. This "starburst" is responsible for many of the young stars on the outskirts of the galaxy's core, as well as the central giant star cluster.

NGC 1705 is classified as a dwarf irregular because it is small and lacks any regular structure. Many astronomers now believe that dwarf galaxies, like NGC 1705, were the first systems to collapse and start forming stars in the early universe. They represent the building blocks from which more massive objects (spiral and elliptical galaxies) were later formed through mergers and accretion. Nearby small galaxies are thought to be the leftovers of the galaxy-formation process.

Dwarf irregulars are similar in many ways to very young galaxies, but they are much nearer and easier to study. These galaxies seem to have consumed only a tiny percentage of their reservoir of gas. Their stars have a much lower fraction of heavy elements than does the Sun. These are all indications that only a few generations of stars have formed there over time. Current star formation is taking place at a fairly high rate in starburst episodes. All these characteristics make dwarf irregular galaxies the ideal local analogues to young galaxies from the early universe. Understanding their evolution is extremely useful and sheds light on the many processes related to galaxy formation and evolution.

Dwarf irregulars play a key role in astronomers' attempts to unravel the history of galaxies in the early universe. These galaxies are probably best described as fairly old stellar systems whose chemical and physical properties can be ascribed to a process of slow evolution. The Hubble observations of the stars in NGC 1705 and other close irregulars have demonstrated that these galaxies are several billion years old. NGC 1705 could be as old as 13.5 billion years.

Planetary Destinations In Pictor

Beta Pictoris (A5 V)

Beta Pictoris b is almost certainly a world of wonders, assuming it exists at all. Currently, we don't know much about it. What we do know is that beta Pictoris is surrounded by a disk of dust and gas similar to the disk which our own solar system formed from. In many ways, beta Pictoris may be a solar system in the making.

Parent Star: beta Pictoris (A5 V) in the constellation of Pictor is located at a distance of 58.7 Light Years from our Solar system Co-ordinates are Right Ascension: 05 47 17.04 & Declination: -51 04 03.5. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 3.84. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.69 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 2.16 AU. Orbiting around beta Pictoris are planetary objects of Beta Pictoris b, B Pic inner Protoplanetary

 

Disk, beta Pictoris Comet, B Pic outer Protoplanetary Disk, Beta Pictoris c.

 

Beta Pictoris b is believed to be a Jupiter-twin and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is white water ice clouds. The planet is positioned out side of Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 8 AU. The planet Orbits around the star every 19 Years. It's mass is 2 Jupiters and was discovered by Transit from Lecavelier des Etangs, 1995 Asymmetry from Burrows, 1996 in 1995.

 

B Pic Inner Protoplanetary Disk is a Protoplanetary Disk . The Asteroid Field has been confirmed. The asteroid field is positioned at a Mean Orbital Distance of 24 AU. and the detection method was Imaging . There may be more planets in this planetary system beyond the Asteroid Field. beta Pictoris Comet is believed to be a Comet and its exitence has been confirmed. The Comets is positioned out side of Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 40 AU and was discovered by Lecavelier des Etangs et al in 2001.

 

B Pic Outer Protoplanetary Disk is a Protoplanetary Disk . The Asteroid Field has been confirmed. The asteroid field is positioned at a Mean Orbital Distance of 380 AU. and the detection method was Imaging. There may be more planets in this planetary system beyond the Asteroid Field.

 

Beta Pictoris c is believed to be a Methane Cloud Jovian and its discovery status is uncertain. The Planets Appearance is Blue with methane clouds and hazes. The planet is positioned out side of Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 537 AU and was discovered by Asymmetry from Burrows, 96 Dust Blob from Holland, 1998 in 1996 .

 

Beta Pictoris Planetary System There may be more planets in this planetary system beyond the Asteroid Fields. HD 41004 A is in a double system. HD 41004 B is a M4V star and has a 19 Jupiter mass brown dwarf companion.

HD 6434 (G3 IV)

Parent Star: HD 6434 (G3 IV) in the constellation of Phoenix is located at a distance of 131.5 Light Years from our Solar system Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 01 04 40.1511 & Declination: -39 29 17.583. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 7.72. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.57 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 1.79 AU. Orbiting around HD 6434 is planet HD 6434 b the planet is believed to be a clarified jovian, eccentric and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is blue and cloudless. The planet is positioned outside of the habitability zone at mean orbital distance of 0.15 AU. The planet Orbits around the star every 22.09 Days and was discovered by M. Mayor, D. Naef, F. Pepe, D. Queloz, N.C. Santos S. Udry, in 2000.