Project Gutenberg on Nostr: #OTD in 1773. French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy, an ...
#OTD in 1773.
French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy, an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located an estimated 31 million light-years away.
Messier made his discovery while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier's catalogue as M51. The advent of radio astronomy and subsequent radio images of M51 unequivocally demonstrated that the Whirlpool and its companion galaxy are indeed interacting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy 
Published at
2024-10-13 10:27:47Event JSON
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"content": "#OTD in 1773.\n\nFrench astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy, an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located an estimated 31 million light-years away.\n\nMessier made his discovery while hunting for objects that could confuse comet hunters, and was designated in Messier's catalogue as M51. The advent of radio astronomy and subsequent radio images of M51 unequivocally demonstrated that the Whirlpool and its companion galaxy are indeed interacting.\n\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy\n\nhttps://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/299/629/820/802/717/original/987f61d3abc6c3a2.jpg",
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