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Astronomy Picture of the Day
Index - Messier Objects |
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Messier, Charles:
While hunting for comets in the skies above France, 18th century
astronomer Charles Messier made a list of the positions of about 100
fuzzy, diffuse looking objects which appeared at fixed positions in the
sky. Although these objects looked like comets, Messier knew that
since they did not move with respect to the background stars they could
not be the undiscovered comets he was searching for. These objects are
now well known to modern astronomers to be among the brightest
and most striking gaseous nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies. Objects
on Messier's list are still referred to by their "Messier number".
For example the Andromeda Galaxy, the 31st object on the list,
is known as M31.
M1, M10 ~ M19, M100-
M2, M20 ~ M29
M3, M30 ~ M39
M4, M40 ~ M49
M5, M50 ~ M59
M6, M60 ~ M69
M7, M70 ~ M79
M8, M80 ~ M89
M9, M90 ~ M99
Authors & editors:
Robert
Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry
Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.:
Jay Norris.
Specific rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA
at
NASA/
GSFC
&:
Michigan Tech. U.
Design of this page: Momoko