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Messier catalogue facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The Messier Catalogue is a special list of astronomical objects. It was created by a French astronomer named Charles Messier in 1771. Messier was mostly looking for comets. He got annoyed by fuzzy objects in the sky that looked a bit like comets but weren't. So, he decided to make a list of these "non-comet" objects. His assistant, Pierre Méchain, helped him.

The objects on this list are given numbers with an 'M' in front, like M1, M2, and so on. Charles Messier could only see objects from France, so his list doesn't include everything we know about today. However, it's still very popular because astronomers have used it for hundreds of years and are very familiar with it.

The first version of the catalogue had 45 objects, from M1 to M45. Eventually, Messier himself published a list with 103 objects. Later, modern astronomers added a few more, bringing the total to 110, based on Messier's notes. Other lists of sky objects exist too, like the New General Catalogue.

What's in the Messier Catalogue?

Most of the objects in the Messier Catalogue are either groups of stars called star clusters or huge clouds of gas and dust called nebulae. There are only three galaxies in the first fifty objects. The most famous galaxy on the list is the Andromeda Galaxy, which is M31. Individual stars are not included in the list.

Here are the first ten objects in the catalogue:

  • M1: The Crab nebula. This is what's left after a huge star exploded (a supernova remnant).
  • M2: A globular cluster. This is a tight ball of thousands of old stars.
  • M3: Another globular cluster.
  • M4: A globular cluster.
  • M5: A globular cluster.
  • M6: The Butterfly cluster. This is an open cluster, which means it's a looser group of younger stars.
  • M7: The Ptolemy cluster. This is also an open cluster.
  • M8: The Lagoon nebula. This is a large cloud of gas and dust that also contains a star cluster.
  • M9: A globular cluster.
  • M10: A globular cluster.

Images for kids

  • Charles Messier

    This is a picture of Charles Messier, the astronomer who created the famous catalogue.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Catálogo Messier para niños

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