This is a list of astronomical objects named after people. While topological features on

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

bodies — such as craters, mountains, and valleys — are often named after famous or historical individuals, many stars and

deep-sky object A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object (such as Sun, Moon, planet, comet, etc.). The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed f ...

s are named after the individual(s) who discovered or otherwise studied it. This list does not include astronomical objects named after mythological or fictional characters.

Clusters and groups

Stars

*Al Sufi's cluster, also called Brocchi's Cluster, is a coathanger-shaped asterism located in

Vulpecula Vulpecula is a faint constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "little fox", although it is commonly known simply as the fox. It was identified in the seventeenth century, and is located in the middle of the Summer Triangle (an ...

named after Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and Dalmero Francis Brocchi. * Blanco 1 is an open cluster in Sculptor, named after

Victor Manuel Blanco The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

. *Caroline's Cluster ( NGC 2360) is an

open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, an ...

in Canis Major, named after

Caroline Herschel Caroline Lucretia Herschel (; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German born British astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigolle ...

. *Caroline's Rose ( NGC 7789) is an open cluster in Cassiopeia, named after Caroline Herschel. *

Gould Belt The Gould Belt is a local, partial ring of stars in the Milky Way, about 3,000 light-years long, tilted away from the galactic plane by about 16–20 degrees. It contains many O- and B-type stars, amounting to the nearest star-forming regi ...

is a ring of stars in the

Orion Arm The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy that is across and approximately in length, containing the Solar System, including Earth. It is also referred to by its full name, the Orion–Cygnus Arm, as well as Local Arm, Orion ...

of the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...

, named after

Benjamin Apthorp Gould Benjamin Apthorp Gould (September 27, 1824 – November 26, 1896) was a pioneering American astronomer. He is noted for creating the ''Astronomical Journal'', discovering the Gould Belt, and for founding of the Argentine National Observatory and ...

*Grindlay 1 is a globular star cluster in Scorpius, named after Jonathan E. Grindlay. * Kemble's Cascade and Kemble's Kite are two asterisms in Camelopardalis, named after

Lucian Kemble Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstit ...

. *

Liller 1 Liller 1 is a globular cluster in the constellation Scorpius, discovered by the American astronomer William Liller in 1977. It is close to the centre of the Milky Way in its galactic bulge, only 2,600 light-years (800 pc) from the centre. Liller 1 ...

is a globular star cluster in Scorpius, named after

William Liller William Liller (April 1, 1927, Philadelphia – February 28, 2021) was an American astronomer, known for his research on "planetary nebulae, comets, asteroids, magnetic activity in cool stars, the optical identification of X-ray sources, and astr ...

. *Picot 1, also called Napoleon's Hat, is an asterism in Boötes, named after

Fulbert Picot Fulbert is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Fulbert of Cambrai, Bishop of Cambrai (died 956) * Fulbert of Chartres, Bishop of Chartres (1006–1028) * Fulbert of Falaise ( fl. 11th century), maternal grandfather of William th ...

. *Ptolemy's Cluster (

Messier 7 Messier 7 or M7, also designated NGC 6475 and sometimes known as the Ptolemy Cluster, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Scorpius. The cluster is easily detectable with the naked eye, close to the "stinger" of Scorpius. With a d ...

) is an open star cluster in

Scorpius Scorpius is a zodiac constellation located in the Southern celestial hemisphere, where it sits near the center of the Milky Way, between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east. Scorpius is an ancient constellation that pre-dates the Gr ...

, named after

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

. *Webb's wreath is a telescopic asterism in

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

, named after

Thomas William Webb Thomas William Webb (14 December 1807 – 19 May 1885) was a British astronomer. Some sources give his year of birth as 1806. The only son of a clergyman, the Rev. John Webb, he was raised and educated by his father, his mother having died ...

Galaxies

*Burbidge Chain is a group of galaxies located in

Cetus Cetus () is a constellation, sometimes called 'the whale' in English. The Cetus was a sea monster in Greek mythology which both Perseus and Heracles needed to slay. Cetus is in the region of the sky that contains other water-related constellat ...

, named after

Margaret Burbidge Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, FRS (; 12 August 1919 – 5 April 2020) was a British-American observational astronomer and astrophysicist. In the 1950s, she was one of the founders of stellar nucleosynthesis and was first author of the influentia ...

. *

Clowes–Campusano LQG The Clowes–Campusano LQG (CCLQG; also called LQG 3 and U1.28) is a large quasar group, consisting of 34 quasars and measuring about 2 billion light-years across. It is one of the largest known superstructures in the observable universe. It is l ...

is a large quasar group in Leo, named after Roger Clowes and Luis Campusano. *

Copeland Septet The Copeland Septet (also Copeland's Septet, Hickson Compact Group 57) is a group of galaxies in the constellation Leo that includes NGC 3748, NGC 3754, NGC 3750, NGC 3751, NGC 3745, NGC 3753 and NGC 3746. The group was discovered by Brit ...

is group of seven galaxies in Leo, named after

Ralph Copeland Ralph Copeland FRSE FRAS (3 September 1837 – 27 October 1905) was an English astronomer and the third Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Life Copeland was born at Moorside Farm, near Woodplumpton in Lancashire, England the son of Robert Copela ...

. *Keenan's System ( Arp 104) is a pair of connected galaxies in

Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...

, named after

Philip Childs Keenan Philip Childs Keenan (March 31, 1908 – April 20, 2000) was an American astronomer. Keenan was an American spectroscopist who collaborated with William Wilson Morgan and Edith Kellman (1911–2007) to develop the MKK stellar spectral classi ...

. *

Markarian's Chain Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. When viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. Charles Messier first discovered two of the galaxies, M84 and M86, in 1781. The other galaxi ...

is a chain of galaxies in the

Virgo Cluster The Virgo Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the la ...

, named after

Benjamin Markarian Benjamin "Benik" Egishevitch Markarian ( hy, Բենիամին Եղիշեի Մարգարյան) was an Armenian astrophysicist. Markarian's Chain is a group of galaxies which was named after him when he discovered that its members move with a com ...

Robert's Quartet Robert's Quartet is a compact galaxy group approximately 160 million light-years away in the constellation Phoenix. It is a family of four very different galaxies whose proximity to each other has caused the creation of about 200 star-forming ...

is a group of galaxies in

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

, named after Robert Freedman. * Seyfert's Sextet is a group of galaxies in

Serpens Serpens ( grc, , , the Serpent) is a constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, it remains one of the 88 modern constellations designated by the International ...

, named after Carl Keenan Seyfert. * Stephan's Quintet is a group of galaxies in Pegasus, named after

Édouard Stephan Édouard Jean-Marie Stephan (31 August 1837 – 31 December 1923) was a French astronomer. His surname is sometimes spelled Stéphan in some literature, but this is apparently erroneous. He was born in Sainte Pezenne (today one of the districts ...

. * Wild's Triplet is a group of galaxies in

Virgo Virgo may refer to: *Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac * Virgo (constellation), a constellation *Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo *Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy * Virgo Su ...

, named after Paul Wild. * Zwicky's Triplet is a group of galaxies in

, named after

Fritz Zwicky Fritz Zwicky (; ; February 14, 1898 – February 8, 1974) was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, where he made many important contributions in theoretical an ...

Galaxy clusters and superclusters

* Abell clusters - a list of 4000 galaxy clusters in the

Abell catalogue The Abell catalog of rich clusters of galaxies is an all-sky catalog of 4,073 rich galaxy clusters of nominal redshift ''z'' ≤ 0.2. This catalog supplements a revision of George O. Abell's original "Northern Survey" of 1958, wh ...

, named for George O. Abell. * Shapley Supercluster

Comets

Comet names are often given for the astronomer(s) who discovered it, but they can also be for scientists who gave significant contributions towards their study.

Interstellar comets

2I/Borisov 2I/Borisov, originally designated C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), is the first observed rogue comet and the second observed interstellar interloper after ʻOumuamua. It was discovered by the Crimean amateur astronomer and telescope maker Gennadiy Borisov ...

is the first observed interstellar comet, named after Gennadiy Borisov

Great comets

* Aristotle's Comet *

Caesar's Comet Caesar's Comet (also ''Sidus Iulium'' ("Julian Star"); ''Caesaris astrum'' ("Star of Caesar"); Comet Caesar; the Great Comet of 44 BC; numerical designation C/−43 K1) was a seven-day cometary outburst seen in July 44 BC. It was interpreted by ...

* Donati's Comet *

Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the on ...

Comet Skjellerup–Maristany Comet Skjellerup–Maristany, formally designated C/1927 X1, 1927 IX, and 1927k, was a long-period comet which became very bright in 1927. This great comet was observable to the naked eye for about 32 days. It was independently discovered by am ...

Comet Arend–Roland Comet Arend–Roland was discovered on November 8, 1956 by Belgian astronomers Sylvain Arend and Georges Roland on photographic plates. As the eighth comet found in 1956, it was named Arend–Roland 1956h after its discoverers. Because it was the ...

* Comet Mrkos *

Comet Ikeya–Seki :''There are two comets named Ikeya–Seki: C/1965 S1 (this one), and C/1967 Y1, a.k.a. 1968 I, 1967n.'' Comet Ikeya–Seki, formally designated C/1965 S1, 1965 VIII, and 1965f, was a long-period comet discovered independently by Kaoru Ikeya ...

* Comet Bennett *

Comet Kohoutek Comet Kohoutek ( formally designated C/1973 E1 and formerly as 1973 XII and 1973f) is a comet that passed close to the Sun towards the end of 1973. Early predictions of the comet's peak brightness suggested that it had the potential to become o ...

Comet West Comet West, formally designated C/1975 V1, 1976 VI, and 1975n, was a comet described as one of the brightest objects to pass through the inner Solar System in 1976. It is often described as a "great comet." History It was discovered photograp ...

Comet Hyakutake Comet Hyakutake (, formally designated C/1996 B2) is a comet, discovered on 31 January 1996, that passed very close to Earth in March of that year. It was dubbed the Great Comet of 1996; its passage near the Earth was one of the closest com ...

Comet Hale–Bopp Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) is a comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades. Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered Comet Hale–Bopp separately ...

* Comet McNaught * Comet Lovejoy

Periodic comets

Comet Encke Comet Encke , or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke), is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS ha ...

, named for

Johann Franz Encke Johann Franz Encke (; 23 September 179126 August 1865) was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and made observations ...

* Lazarus comet

Craters

Galaxies

In most cases, the named individual was the person who discovered the galaxy, who first brought attention to it, or who first studied it scientifically. Many of the brighter galaxies visible from the Northern Hemisphere have Messier numbers, named after

Charles Messier Charles Messier (; 26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817) was a French astronomer. He published an astronomical catalogue consisting of 110 nebulae and star clusters, which came to be known as the ''Messier objects''. Messier's purpose ...

. There are a few other comprehensive catalogs that assign the cataloguer's name to galaxies. For instance,

Markarian galaxies The Markarian galaxies are a class of galaxies that have nuclei with excessive amounts of ultraviolet emissions compared with other galaxies. Benjamin Markarian drew attention to these types of galaxies starting in 1963. The nuclei of the gala ...

, named after

, are galaxies with excess blue and ultraviolet emission; galaxies in the

Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies The ''Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies'' is a catalog of peculiar galaxies produced by Halton Arp in 1966. A total of 338 galaxies are presented in the atlas, which was originally published in 1966 by the California Institute of Technology. The ...

are assigned an Arp number after

Halton Arp Halton Christian "Chip" Arp (March 21, 1927 – December 28, 2013) was an American astronomer. He was known for his 1966 ''Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies'', which (it was later theorized) catalogues many examples of interacting and merging galaxie ...

who produced the catalog; etc. Objects in these catalogs are excluded below, except in cases where they carry the name of an additional person. *Ambartsumian's Knot, a small tidal

dwarf galaxy A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is so ...

located in NGC 3561 in

, named after

Viktor Ambartsumian Viktor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian (russian: Виктор Амазаспович Амбарцумян; hy, Վիկտոր Համազասպի Համբարձումյան, ''Viktor Hamazaspi Hambardzumyan''; 12 August 1996) was a Soviet Armenian ast ...

*Barnard's Galaxy (

NGC 6822 NGC 6822 (also known as Barnard's Galaxy, IC 4895, or Caldwell 57) is a barred irregular galaxy approximately 1.6 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Part of the Local Group of galaxies, it was discovered by E. E. Barna ...

) is located in Sagittarius, named after E. E. Barnard. * Bedin I, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy * Burçin's Galaxy is a ring galaxy in Crater, named after Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil * Bode's Galaxy is

Messier 81 Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It has a D25 isophotal diameter of . Because of its relative proximity to the Milky Way ...

, a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. * Coddington's Nebula is dwarf spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, named after

Edwin Foster Coddington Edwin Foster Coddington (June 24, 1870 – December 21, 1950) was an American astronomer and discoverer of astronomical objects. He co-discovered the comet C/1898 L1 (Coddington-Pauly), also known by the older designation Comet 1898 VII. He a ...

. * Donatiello I is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy about 10.7 million light-years, close to NGC404. It is named after the Italian amateur astronomer Giuseppe Donatiello. Donatiello discovered three more NGC 253 satellite galaxies in 2020, named Donatiello II, Donatiello III and Donatiello IV &A 652, A48 (2021) *

Hoag's Object Hoag's Object is an unusual ring galaxy in the constellation of Serpens Caput. It is named after Arthur Hoag, who discovered it in 1950 and identified it as either a planetary nebula or a peculiar galaxy. The galaxy has approximately eight bill ...

is a

ring galaxy A ring galaxy is a galaxy with a circle-like appearance. Hoag's Object, discovered by Art Hoag in 1950, is an example of a ring galaxy. The ring contains many massive, relatively young blue stars, which are extremely bright. The central region co ...

, named after Arthur Hoag. * Erik Holmberg described multiple galaxies that have since been named after him: ** Holmberg II is a dwarf irregular galaxy about 9.8 million light-years away in the M81 Group ** Holmberg IX is a dwarf irregular galaxy and a satellite galaxy of Messier 81. ** Holmberg 15A is a supergiant elliptical galaxy and the central dominant galaxy of the Abell 85 galaxy cluster in the constellation Cetus. * Huchra's Lens is a lensed galaxy. * Kinman's Dwarf is a low-metallicity blue compact dwarf galaxy in

Aquarius Aquarius may refer to: Astrology * Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign * Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages Astronomy * Aquarius (constellation) * Aquarius in Chinese astronomy Arts and entertainme ...

. * Komossa's object is a galaxy in which the supermassive black hole disrupted a star. * Lindsay-Shapley Ring is a ring galaxy in

Volans Volans is a constellation in the southern sky. It represents a flying fish; its name is a shortened form of its original name, Piscis Volans. Volans was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirk ...

Maffei 1 Maffei 1 is a massive elliptical galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. Once believed to be a member of the Local Group of galaxies, it is now known to belong to a separate group, the IC 342/Maffei Group. It was named after Paolo Maffei, who ...

is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia and the closest giant elliptical galaxy to the Milky Way. *

Maffei 2 Maffei 2 is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 10 million light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. Maffei 2 and Maffei 1 were both discovered by Paolo Maffei in 1968 from their infrared emission. Maffei 2 lies in the Zone of Avoidan ...

is a spiral galaxy about 10 million light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. *

Malin 1 __NOTOC__ Malin 1 is a giant low surface brightness (LSB) spiral galaxy. It is located away in the constellation Coma Berenices, near the North Galactic Pole. , it is the largest known spiral galaxy, with an approximate diameter of , thus ove ...

is one of the largest spiral galaxies known and is the archetypal Low Surface Brightness galaxy *

Mayall's Object Mayall's Object (also classified under the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 148) is the result of two colliding galaxies located 500 million light years away within the constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered by American astronomer Nichol ...

* Willman 1 is an ultra low-mass dwarf galaxy. *The Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte galaxy is an irregular galaxy on the outer edges of the Local Group. It is in the constellation Cetus. *

I Zwicky 18 I Zwicky 18 is a blue compact dwarf galaxy located about 59 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy was first identified by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in a 1930s photographic survey of galaxies. Age Studies at t ...

is a dwarf irregular galaxy.

Minor planets and Solar System features

Kordylewski cloud Kordylewski clouds are large concentrations of dust that exist at the and Lagrangian points of the Earth–Moon system. They were first reported by Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in the 1960s, and confirmed to exist in October 2018. Di ...

, named after

Kazimierz Kordylewski Kazimierz Kordylewski (born 11 October 1903 in Poznań – 11 March 1981 in Kraków, Poland) was a Polish astronomer. In 1956, he claimed the discovery of the Kordylewski clouds, large transient concentrations of dust at the Trojan points of th ...

* Kuiper belt, named after

Gerard Kuiper Gerard Peter Kuiper (; ; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper; 7 December 1905 – 23 December 1973) was a Dutch astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. He is the eponymous namesake of the Kuiper belt. Kuiper is ...

Nebulae

*Barnard's

E Nebula The "E" or "Barnard's E" Nebula (officially designated as Barnard 142 and 143) is a pair of dark nebula in the Aquila constellation. It is a well-defined dark area on a background of Milky Way consisting of countless stars of all magnitudes. I ...

is a pair of dark nebula in Aquila, named after E. E. Barnard. *

Barnard's Loop Barnard's Loop (catalogue designation Sh 2-276) is an emission nebula in the constellation of Orion. It is part of the Orion molecular cloud complex which also contains the dark Horsehead and bright Orion nebulae. The loop takes the form of ...

is an

emission nebula An emission nebula is a nebula formed of ionized gases that emit light of various wavelengths. The most common source of ionization is high-energy ultraviolet photons emitted from a nearby hot star. Among the several different types of emissio ...

that is part of the

Orion molecular cloud complex The Orion molecular cloud complex (or, simply, the Orion complex) is a star-forming region with stellar ages ranging up to 12 Myr. Two giant molecular clouds are a part of it, Orion A and Orion B. The stars currently forming within the complex a ...

in Orion, named after E. E. Barnard. *Barnard's Merope Nebula ( IC 349) is a nebula located in the

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance ...

cluster, named after E. E. Barnard. * Baxendell's Unphotographable Nebula is an apparently nonexistent nebula located near Messier 2 in

, named after

Joseph Baxendell Joseph Baxendell (1815–1887) was a British meteorologist and astronomer. Background He was the son of Thomas Baxendell and Mary his wife, née Shepley, and was born at Manchester on 19 April 1815. He received his early education at Tho ...

who first "discovered" it. *

Burnham's Nebula T Tauri is a variable star in the constellation Taurus, the prototype of the T Tauri stars. It was discovered in October 1852 by John Russell Hind. T Tauri appears from Earth amongst the Hyades cluster, not far from ε Tauri, but it ...

is an Herbig-Haro Object in

Taurus Taurus is Latin for 'bull' and may refer to: * Taurus (astrology), the astrological sign * Taurus (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Taurus (mythology), one of two Greek mythological characters named Taurus * '' Bos tauru ...

, named after Robert Burnham Jr. * De Mairan's Nebula (Messier 43) is part of the

, named after Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan *

Fleming 1 Fleming 1 is an unusual planetary nebula situated in the Centaurus constellation. It has a pair of symmetrical jets spanning more than 2.8 pc and delineated with a number of knots. The jets and knots are moving away from the center of the nebul ...

is a

planetary nebula A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelate ...

Centaurus Centaurus is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. ...

, named after Williamina Fleming *

Gum Nebula The Gum Nebula (Gum 12) is an emission nebula that extends across 36° in the southern constellations Vela and Puppis. It lies approximately 450 parsecs from the Earth. Hard to distinguish, it was widely believed to be the greatly expanded (an ...

(Gum 12) is an emission nebula stretching across Vela and Puppis, named after

Colin Stanley Gum Colin Stanley Gum (4 June 1924 – 29 April 1960) was an Australian astronomer known for his cataloguing of emission nebulae and the publication of his findings. Early life and education Gum was born at Quambi Hospital in Adelaide, South Austra ...

. *Hind's Variable Nebula (

NGC 1555 NGC 1555, sometimes known as Hind's Variable Nebula, is a variable nebula, illuminated by the star T Tauri, located in the constellation Taurus. It is also in the second Sharpless catalog as 238. It is a Herbig–Haro object. The nebula was d ...

) is in

, named after

John Russell Hind John Russell Hind FRS FRSE LLD (12 May 1823 – 23 December 1895) was an English astronomer. Life and work John Russell Hind was born in 1823 in Nottingham, the son of lace manufacturer John Hind and Elizabeth Russell, and was educated at ...

. *Hubble's Variable Nebula (

NGC 2261 NGC 2261 (also known as Hubble's Variable Nebula or Caldwell 46) is a variable nebula located in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula is illuminated by the star R Monocerotis (R Mon), which is not directly visible itself. Observing history N ...

) is in

Monoceros Monoceros (Greek: Μονόκερως, "unicorn") is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, ...

, named after Edwin Hubble. * Jones-Emberson 1 is a planetary nebula in Lynx, named after Rebecca Jones and Richard M. Emberson. *

Kleinmann–Low Nebula The Kleinmann–Low Nebula (also known as the Orion KL Nebula) is an active star forming region in the Milky Way galaxy. It is a cluster of stars within a molecular cloud.Ferland pp191 The Kleinmann–Low Nebula is at the heart of the Orion Ne ...

is a star-forming region found at the center of the Orion Nebula, named after named after Douglas Kleinmann and Frank J. Low. * McNeil's Nebula is a variable nebula in Orion, named after Jay McNeil. * Minkowski 2-9 or Minkowski's Butterfly is a planetary nebula in

Ophiuchus Ophiuchus () is a large constellation straddling the celestial equator. Its name comes from the Ancient Greek (), meaning "serpent-bearer", and it is commonly represented as a man grasping a snake. The serpent is represented by the constella ...

, named after

Rudolph Minkowski Rudolph Minkowski (born Rudolf Leo Bernhard Minkowski ; ; May 28, 1895 – January 4, 1976) was a German-American astronomer. Biography Minkowski was the son of Marie Johanna Siegel and physiologist Oskar Minkowski. His uncle was Hermann Min ...

. *

Pease 1 Pease 1 is a planetary nebula located within the globular cluster M15 33,600 light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 tri ...

is a planetary nebula in the globular star cluster

Messier 15 Messier 15 or M15 (also designated NGC 7078) is a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and included in Charles Messier's catalogue of comet-like objects in 1764. At an estimated 12.5 ...

, named after Francis G. Pease. * Pickering's Triangle is a section of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus, named after

Edward Charles Pickering Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist and the older brother of William Henry Pickering. Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote ' ...

. *

Shapley 1 Shapley 1 (''Sp 1'' or ''PLN 329+2.1'') is an annular planetary nebula in the constellation of Norma with a magnitude of +12.6. As viewed from Earth, it is peculiar in that it seems to be a non- bipolar, torus-shaped planetary nebula. However, ...

is a planetary nebula in

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy *Norma (constellation) *555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Lazi ...

, named after Harlow Shapley. *Struve's Lost Nebula ( NGC 1554) is a potentially nonexistent nebula in

, named after

Otto Wilhelm von Struve Otto Wilhelm von Struve (May 7, 1819 (Julian calendar: April 25) – April 14, 1905) was a Russian astronomer of Baltic German origins. In Russian, his name is normally given as Otto Vasil'evich Struve (Отто Васильевич Струв ...

. *Tempel's Nebula ( NGC 1435) is a reflection nebula in

, named after

Wilhelm Tempel Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel (4 December 1821 – 16 March 1889), normally known as Wilhelm Tempel, was a German astronomer who worked in Marseille until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, then later moved to Italy. Tempel was ...

. *

Westbrook Nebula Westbrook Nebula (CRL 618) is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula which is located in the constellation Auriga. It is being formed by a star that has passed through the red giant phase and has ceased nuclear fusion at its core. This star is conceal ...

is a

bipolar nebula A bipolar nebula is a type of nebula characterized by two lobes either side of a central star. About 10-20% of planetary nebulae are bipolar. Formation Though the exact causes of this nebular structure are not known, it is often thought to impl ...

Auriga AURIGA (''Antenna Ultracriogenica Risonante per l'Indagine Gravitazionale Astronomica'') is an ultracryogenic resonant bar gravitational wave detector in Italy. It is at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nuclea ...

, named after William E. Westbrook.

Stars

Other astronomical features

*Arp's loop is a ring-like structure located near

in Ursa Major, named after

. * Baade's Window is an area of sky with low amounts of

cosmic dust Cosmic dust, also called extraterrestrial dust, star dust or space dust, is dust which exists in outer space, or has fallen on Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 micrometers). Larger particles are c ...

in Sagittarius, named after

Walter Baade Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24, 1893 – June 25, 1960) was a German astronomer who worked in the United States from 1931 to 1959. Biography The son of a teacher, Baade finished school in 1912. He then studied maths, physics and astr ...

. *

Becklin–Neugebauer Object The Becklin–Neugebauer Object (BN) is an object visible only in the infrared in the Orion molecular cloud 1 (OMC1). It was discovered in 1967 by Eric Becklin and Gerry Neugebauer during their near-infrared survey of the Orion Nebula. ...

is located in the

and only visible in

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

, named after Eric Becklin and

Gerry Neugebauer Gerhart "Gerry" Neugebauer (3 September 1932 – 26 September 2014) was an American astronomer known for his pioneering work in infrared astronomy. Neugebauer was born in Göttingen, Germany and was the son of Otto Neugebauer, an Austrian-Amer ...

. *Fourcade-Figueroa Object is a potential galaxy remnant associated with NGC 5128 in

, named after Carlos Raúl Fourcade and Edgardo Javier Figueroa. *Gabriela Mistral Nebula is the combination of open cluster

NGC 3324 NGC 3324 is an open cluster in the southern constellation Carina, located northwest of the Carina Nebula at a distance of from Earth. It is closely associated with the emission nebula , also known as . The two are often confused as a single ob ...

and emission nebula IC 2599 in

Carina Carina may refer to: Places Australia * Carina, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina Heights, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina, Victoria, a locality in Mildura Serbia * Carina, Osečina, a village in the Kolubara District ...

, named after the Chilean poet

Gabriela Mistral Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist. In 1945 she became the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Li ...

. * Gomez's Hamburger (IRAS 18059-3211) is a potentially young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in Sagittarius, named after Arturo Gómez. * Hanny's Voorwerp is a quasar ionization echo near

IC 2497 IC 2497 is a spiral galaxy close to the intergalactic cloud Hanny's Voorwerp. The galaxy is a former quasar, whose light lit up Hanny's Voorwerp, which is now a light echo of that extinct quasar. It is about away from Hanny's Voorwerp. The quasar ...

Leo Minor Leo Minor is a small and faint constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for "the smaller lion", in contrast to Leo, the larger lion. It lies between the larger and more recognizable Ursa Major to the north and Le ...

, named after Hanny van Arkel. * Helmi stream is a stellar stream of the Milky Way galaxy, named after

Amina Helmi Amina Helmi (6 October 1970) is an Argentine astronomer and professor at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Education Helmi was educated at Leiden University where she was awarded a PhD in 2000 ...

. * Hubble volume, a spherical region of the observable universe surrounding an observer beyond which objects recede from that observer at a rate greater than the speed of light due to the expansion of the universe, named after Edwin Hubble. *

KBC Void The KBC Void (or Local Hole) is an immense, comparatively empty region of space, named after astronomers Ryan Keenan, Amy Barger, and Lennox Cowie, who studied it in 2013. The existence of a local underdensity has been the subject of many pieces ...

is an immense empty region of space, named after Ryan Keenan,

Amy Barger Amy J. Barger (born January 18, 1971) is an American astronomer and Henrietta Leavitt Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is considered a pioneer in combining data from multiple telescopes to monitor multiple wa ...

, and Lennox Cowie. *

is the result of a galaxy collision in

, named after

Nicholas Mayall Nicholas Ulrich Mayall (May 9, 1906 – January 5, 1993) was an American observational astronomer. After obtaining his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, Mayall worked at the Lick Observatory, where he remained from 1934 to 1 ...

. * 9Spitch is a gravitationally lensed system of two galaxies in Cetus. It is named after Zbigniew "Zbish" Chetnik. The term ''Spitch'' comes from Chetnik's nickname ''Zbish'', after a BBC producer misheard his nickname. *

Oort cloud The Oort cloud (), sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, first described in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, is a theoretical concept of a cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from ...

, named for

Jan Oort Jan Hendrik Oort ( or ; 28 April 1900 – 5 November 1992) was a Dutch astronomer who made significant contributions to the understanding of the Milky Way and who was a pioneer in the field of radio astronomy. His ''New York Times'' obituary ...

*Thackeray's Globules are a set of Bok globules in

IC 2944 IC 2944, also known as the Running Chicken Nebula, the Lambda Centauri Nebula or the λ Centauri Nebula, is an open cluster with an associated emission nebula found in the constellation Centaurus, near the star λ Centauri. It features Bok globu ...

, named after A. David Thackeray.

References

External links

USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
{{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System Lists of comets Lists of galaxies

Clusters and groups

Stars

Galaxies

Galaxy clusters and superclusters

Comets

Interstellar comets

Great comets

Periodic comets

Craters

Galaxies

Minor planets and Solar System features

Nebulae

Stars

Other astronomical features

See also

References

External links