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The constellation Antlia (Latin for pump) is a relatively new constellation as it was only created in the 18th century. The IAU adopted it as one of the 88 modern constellations. Beginning at the north, Antlia is surrounded by the sea monster Hydra, the compass Pyxis, the sails ( Vela) of the mythological ship Argo and finally the centaur Centaurus.

1 Notable features

Antlia is a faint constellation void of bright stars. Its least faint star is:

• α Ant: being Antlia's principal star its apparent brightness is still only 4.25 mag. Its spectral class is K4 III

2 Notable deep sky objects

• NGC 2997 : Spiral galaxy of type Sc which is inclined 45° to our line of sight.
• NGC 3132 : This planetary nebulaA planetary nebula is an astronomical object consisting of a roughly spherical glowing shell of gas formed by certain types of stars at the end of their lives. Characteristics Physical characteristics A typical planetary nebula is roughly one light year a is also called Eight Burst Nebula or Southern Ring Nebula. At its heart is a binary system.
• PGC 29194 : This dwarf spheroidal galaxyDwarf spheroidal galaxy dSph is a term in astronomy applied to the nine low luminosity dwarf elliptical galaxies that are companions to the Milky Way and to the similar systems that are companions to the Andromeda Galaxy M31. External links Dwarf elliptic with an apparent brightness of only 14.8m belongs to our Local GroupThe Local Group is the group of galaxies that includes our galaxy, the Milky Way. The group comprises over 30 galaxies, with its gravitational center located somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxies of the Local Group cover a of galaxies.

3 History

The French astronomer Abbé Nicolas Louis de La Caille created 13 constellations for the southern sky to fill some star poor regions, among them Antlia. It was originally denominated Antlia pneumatica (Latin for the air pump invented by Robert BoyleThe Honourable Robert Boyle ( January 25, 1627 December 30, 1691) was an Irish natural philosopher, noted for his work in physics and chemistry. Early years He was born at Lismore Castle, in the province of Munster, Ireland, as the seventh son and fourtee) which is why in English this constellation is also often called Air Pump.

It is interesting to note that no attempt seems to have been made to assign Bayer lettersThe International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to stars (and other celestial bodies). Many of the star names in use today were inherited from the time before the IAU existed. Other names, according to their apparent brightness.

There is no mythology attached to Antlia as La Caille discontinued the tradition of giving names from mythology to constellations and instead chose mostly names of instruments used in science.