BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Dorado the Mahi Mahi *new*

Since the heavenly flying fish (Volans) is intact, its neighboring constellation Dorado must still be hungry. Dorado is a dolphinfish, mahi mahi being the most common type. Mahi mahi pursue flying fish through tropical seas, and you might imagine Dorado chasing Volans through the southern skies.

Dorado the Mahi Mahi

Here is a diagram of the star system Gliese 163 which is located in the constellation Dorado. (It's in Italian, but I think it's fairly clear what it means.)

You can see that Gliese 163 b is quite close to the star and that Gliese 163 d, although at an Earthly distance from the star, is definitely outside the habitable zone. Gliese 163 c is on the border of the habitable zone. Although it's small compared to the others, it's still quite a lot bigger than Earth.

NGC 1556 is a face-on spiral galaxy located 40 million light years away in Dorado - and it's a beauty. It's what's known as a Seyfert galaxy because of its very bright nucleus. The active nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole, millions of times the mass of the Sun.

The galaxy gives its name to one of the richest galaxy groups in the southern hemisphere, the NGC 1566 Group.

European Space Agency Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Flickr user Det58

Take a deep breath and be ready to admire the view from the northern Chilean Atacama altiplano. The curve of our own Galaxy dominates, but nearer the horizon on the right hand side of the photo are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is located mainly in the constellation Dorado, but it straddles the border between Dorado and Mensa.

Galaxies from the Altiplano
Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Guisard (Los Cielos de America, TWAN)