I'm probably coming off as a total noob when it comes to star stuff, but you know how people refer to galaxies and nebulae as an "m" then a number instead of saying their actual name? What does this mean, and how exactly do they come up with the number?
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Charles Messier made the first catalogue of "nebulous objects" and objects in the catalogue are referred to as the letter M (for Messier) and the number of the object in the catalogue (1 to 110)
Charles Messier (pronounced May-see-ay -- the final r is silent) was a famous comet hunter. But he kept losing time by getting stuck on objects that "looked like comets" (fuzzy) but were not. He made a list of these objects. In his catalogue, they were meant as objects to avoid.
SOme are star clusters (M-45 is the Pleiades cluster), some are globular clusters (M-13 is a nice one in the constellation Hercules), some are Nebulae (clouds of interstellar dust, lit up by neighbouring stars, like M-20, also called the Trifid Nebula) and some were galaxies (M-31, the great Andromeda galaxy).
However, Messier did not investigate them nor tried to determine their nature. He was just concerned that these things sometimes looked like comets in his telescope, therefore he just recorded them so that he would not waste time when he happened to see one while scanning the sky for comets.
In any case, the idea of "other galaxies" was not accepted by astronomers until roughly a hundred years ago (Charles lives back in the late 1700s, early 1800s)
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Charles Messier (pronounced May-see-ay -- the final r is silent) was a famous comet hunter. But he kept losing time by getting stuck on objects that "looked like comets" (fuzzy) but were not. He made a list of these objects. In his catalogue, they were meant as objects to avoid.
SOme are star clusters (M-45 is the Pleiades cluster), some are globular clusters (M-13 is a nice one in the constellation Hercules), some are Nebulae (clouds of interstellar dust, lit up by neighbouring stars, like M-20, also called the Trifid Nebula) and some were galaxies (M-31, the great Andromeda galaxy).
However, Messier did not investigate them nor tried to determine their nature. He was just concerned that these things sometimes looked like comets in his telescope, therefore he just recorded them so that he would not waste time when he happened to see one while scanning the sky for comets.
In any case, the idea of "other galaxies" was not accepted by astronomers until roughly a hundred years ago (Charles lives back in the late 1700s, early 1800s)
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Well, ..., it's as other's have said 'M' stands for Messier.
Messier was a French Astrologer (yeah, you heard it right ... Astrologer not Astronomer) who lived in then mid-1700's. He made his money finding comets in the night sky and selling his predictions to French royalty and the wealthy. As he pointed his telescope (it wasn't much better than a 50mm scope but he had much darker skies) at the night sky and was looking for comets, he noticed fuzzy cloud like objects (Latin: Nebulae) that looked like comets but night after night (unlike comets) stayed in the same position wrt the night sky. He really didn't know what to make of them so he developed a sky chart noting where these fuzzy objects were in the night sky. Since he didn't know what they were (and being a man of the utmost humility ... NOT) he put an 'M' for Messier and numbered each one he say so he wouldn't waste time rediscovering something that wasn't a comet. He discovered 110 in all and later he published his observations.
When Astronomers turned their scopes to Messier's Nebulae they realized that they looking at structures of complex form and beauty (the list comprises galaxies, Open Clusters, Globular Clustes, Nebula, and Supernova Remnants). Thus, the entire Science of Astronomy took a huge step forward as astronomers every where began searching for deep sky objects.
Messier was a French Astrologer (yeah, you heard it right ... Astrologer not Astronomer) who lived in then mid-1700's. He made his money finding comets in the night sky and selling his predictions to French royalty and the wealthy. As he pointed his telescope (it wasn't much better than a 50mm scope but he had much darker skies) at the night sky and was looking for comets, he noticed fuzzy cloud like objects (Latin: Nebulae) that looked like comets but night after night (unlike comets) stayed in the same position wrt the night sky. He really didn't know what to make of them so he developed a sky chart noting where these fuzzy objects were in the night sky. Since he didn't know what they were (and being a man of the utmost humility ... NOT) he put an 'M' for Messier and numbered each one he say so he wouldn't waste time rediscovering something that wasn't a comet. He discovered 110 in all and later he published his observations.
When Astronomers turned their scopes to Messier's Nebulae they realized that they looking at structures of complex form and beauty (the list comprises galaxies, Open Clusters, Globular Clustes, Nebula, and Supernova Remnants). Thus, the entire Science of Astronomy took a huge step forward as astronomers every where began searching for deep sky objects.
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Nice question, and if only more people asked such sensible questions!
This site may explain for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_cat…
Cheers!
This site may explain for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_cat…
Cheers!
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M means Messier and usually refers to a deep space object.