Messier Objects
Messier Objects
The Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects first listed by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1771. Messier was a comet hunter, and was frustrated by objects which resembled but were not comets, so he compiled a list of them, in collaboration with his assistant Pierre Méchain, to avoid wasting time on them.
The Messier Catalog
became well known for a much higher purpose, as a collection of the most
beautiful objects in the sky including
nebulae, star clusters,
and galaxies.
It was one of the first major milestones in the
history of the discovery of Deep Sky objects,
as it was the first more comprehensive and more reliable list:
Only four or five objects were initially missing
because of data reduction errors, which could be figured out later though.
Today's versions of the catalog usually include also
later additions of objects observed by
Charles Messier and his collegial
friend, Pierre Méchain,
but not included in his original list.
The study of these objects by astronomers has led, and continues to lead,
to important, incredible discoveries such as the life cycles of stars,
the reality of galaxies as separate 'island universes,' and the possible
age of the universe.
List of Some Messier Objects
M1 The Crab Nebula :
M2 :
M3 :
Description: globular cluster
M4 :
Description: globular cluster
M5 :
Description: globular cluster
M6 The Butterfly Cluster :
Description: open cluster
M7 Ptolemy's Cluster :
Description: open cluster
M8 The Lagoon Nebula :
Description: diffuse nebula
M9 :
Description: globular cluster
M10 :
Description: globular cluster
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