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Messier Catalog

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"10 Fascinating Insights into Halley's Comet's Highly Anticipated Return"
astronomy2 years ago

"10 Fascinating Insights into Halley's Comet's Highly Anticipated Return"

As Halley's Comet makes its comeback, here are 10 fun facts about it: it was first recorded in 240 B.C.E., Halley's questioning Newton led to the Principia, Halley identified three prior returns, its orbit is variable, Halley never observed its return, its return led to the Messier catalog, its orbital speed varies tremendously, its debris creates two meteor showers, it's not the most common comet type, and its nucleus may soon split.

Stunning new photos of star clusters captured by Hubble team.
astronomy3 years ago

Stunning new photos of star clusters captured by Hubble team.

The Hubble Space Telescope team has released new images of two star-studded clusters, Messier 14 and Messier 7, located thousands of light-years away. The images were taken in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths of light, providing insight into the formation and chemical makeup of different populations of stars within the clusters. Messier 14 is home to over 150,000 stars and experienced a rare nova event in 1938. Messier 7, also known as Ptolemy's Cluster, is an easy naked-eye target for stargazers in southern latitudes and contains about 80 stars. Both clusters are part of the Messier Catalog, a resource for astronomical sights in the Northern Hemisphere.