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The Messier objects are a set of 110 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles Messier in his Catalogue des Nébuleuses et des Amas d'Étoiles (Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters). Because Messier was interested only in finding comets, he created a list of those non-comet objects that frustrated his hunt for them.
Charles Messier. Charles Messier (French: [ʃaʁl me.sje]; 26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817) was a French astronomer. He published an astronomical catalogue consisting of 110 nebulae and star clusters, which came to be known as the Messier objects, referred to with the letter M and their number between 1 and 110. Messier's purpose for the ...
Whirlpool Galaxy. The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. [6][7][8] It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. [9]
Constellation. Taurus. See also: Open cluster, List of open clusters. The Pleiades (/ ˈpliː.ədiːz, ˈpleɪ -, ˈplaɪ -/), [8][9] also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is an asterism of an open star cluster containing young B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Taurus.
Dark sky image with some objects around Pinwheel Galaxy (M 101). The quarter in the lower right shows the tail of Ursa Major with the stars Mizar, Alcor and Alkaid.. The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on, unbarred, and counterclockwise spiral galaxy located 21 million light-years (6.4 megaparsecs) [5] from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major.
Messier 87. Virgo A, Virgo X-1, NGC 4486, UGC 7654, PGC 41361, VCC 1316, Arp 152, 3C 274, [5] 3U 1228+12. [9] Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo that contains several trillion stars. One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local ...
Messier 13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, [ 2 ] and cataloged by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764, [ 9 ] into his list of objects not to mistake for comets; Messier's list, including Messier 13, eventually became known as the Messier catalog. [ 10 ] It is located at right ascension 16 h 41.7 m, declination +36° 28'.
Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It has a D 25 isophotal diameter of 29.44 kiloparsecs (96,000 light-years). [2][5] Because of its relative proximity to the Milky Way galaxy, large size, and active galactic nucleus (which ...