Messier 102
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Messier 102 (also known as M102) is a
galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
listed in the
Messier Catalogue The Messier objects are a set of 110 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles Messier in his ' (''Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters''). Because Messier was interested only in finding comets, he created a list of thos ...
that cannot be unambiguously identified. Its original discoverer
Pierre Méchain Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets. Life Pierre Méchain was bo ...
retracted his discovery two years after publication and said that it was a duplicate observation of
Messier 101 #REDIRECT Pinwheel Galaxy The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on, counterclockwise intermediate spiral galaxy located from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in ...
.O'Meara, Stephen James. "M102: Mystery Solved", ''Sky and Telescope'', volume 109, number 3, page 78, March 2005 Later historical evidence favors that M102 is actually the galaxy
NGC 5866 NGC 5866 (also called the Spindle Galaxy or possibly Messier 102) is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Draco. NGC 5866 was most likely discovered by Pierre Méchain or Charles Messier in 1781, and independently found by William Hersche ...
, although other galaxies have been suggested as possible identities. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
) considers it to be the same as NGC 5866.


History

The
Messier Catalogue The Messier objects are a set of 110 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles Messier in his ' (''Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters''). Because Messier was interested only in finding comets, he created a list of thos ...
was a list of astronomical objects compiled by
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'', referred to with th ...
between 1771 and 1781, in which he briefly described each object and provided their coordinates on the sky. Because Messier was only interested in finding comets, he created this list of non-comet objects that frustrated his hunt for them. Astronomer
Pierre Méchain Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets. Life Pierre Méchain was bo ...
collaborated with Messier on the compilation of his list. M102 was observed by Méchain in late March or early April 1781 and was added by Messier to the final version of his catalogue published in 1781. However, Messier did not include the coordinates of M102 on his catalogue, leading to confusion about the exact object they observed. His description of the object was the following: In 1783, Méchain retracted his discovery in a letter written to J. Bernoulli and claimed that M102 was actually an accidental duplication of M101 in the catalog. This letter was later published twice: First in original French in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy for 1782, and second in German translation and somewhat rearranged by
Johann Elert Bode Johann Elert Bode (; 19 January 1747 – 23 November 1826) was a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularisation of the Titius–Bode law. Bode determined the orbit of Uranus and suggested the planet's name. Life and career B ...
in the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1786.H. Frommert, 2006. "Messier 102: Status der Identifizierung dieses Messier-Objekts" (In German). ''Journal für Astronomie'', No. 19 (I/2006), pp. 69–71 (January 2006)


Candidate corresponding objects

Since the publication of the Messier Catalogue, a number of galaxies have been identified by different historians, professional astronomers, and amateur astronomers as corresponding to M102.


Messier 101

Messier 101 #REDIRECT Pinwheel Galaxy The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, M101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on, counterclockwise intermediate spiral galaxy located from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in ...
(also known as the ''Pinwheel Galaxy'' or ''NGC 5457'') is a face-on
spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''
in the
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...
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 M ...
. In a letter written in 1783 to J. Bernoulli,
Pierre Méchain Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets. Life Pierre Méchain was bo ...
(who had shared information about his discoveries with Messier) claimed that M102 was actually an accidental duplication of M101 in the catalog. This letter was later published twice: First in original French in the ''Memoirs'' of the Berlin Academy for 1782, and second in German translation and somewhat rearranged by
Johann Elert Bode Johann Elert Bode (; 19 January 1747 – 23 November 1826) was a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularisation of the Titius–Bode law. Bode determined the orbit of Uranus and suggested the planet's name. Life and career B ...
in the ''Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch'' for 1786.


NGC 5866

NGC 5866 NGC 5866 (also called the Spindle Galaxy or possibly Messier 102) is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Draco. NGC 5866 was most likely discovered by Pierre Méchain or Charles Messier in 1781, and independently found by William Hersche ...
(one of two galaxies commonly called the ''Spindle Galaxy'') is a
lenticular galaxy A lenticular galaxy (denoted S0) is a Galaxy morphological classification, type of galaxy intermediate between an elliptical galaxy, elliptical (denoted E) and a spiral galaxy in galaxy morphological classification schemes. It contains a large-s ...
in the
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...
Draco. This galaxy appears to closely match both the object description (by
Pierre Méchain Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets. Life Pierre Méchain was bo ...
) in the printed version of the Messier Catalog of 1781, and the object position given by
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'', referred to with th ...
in hand-written notes on his personal list of the
Messier Catalogue The Messier objects are a set of 110 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles Messier in his ' (''Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters''). Because Messier was interested only in finding comets, he created a list of thos ...
.


Other possible corresponding objects

Although M101 and NGC 5866 are considered to be the two most likely candidates for M102, a few other objects have been suggested as potentially corresponding to this entry.


NGC 5879, NGC 5907, NGC 5908

NGC 5879 NGC 5879 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Draco. The galaxy was discovered in 1788 by William Herschel. It is a member of the NGC 5866 Group. One supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and lumino ...
,
NGC 5907 NGC 5907 (also known as NGC 5906, Knife Edge Galaxy, or Splinter Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy located approximately 46.5 million light years from Earth. German-British astronomer William Herschel discovered the galaxy on 5 May 1788. Its most notable ...
, NGC 5905, and NGC 5908 are all galaxies near the position of
NGC 5866 NGC 5866 (also called the Spindle Galaxy or possibly Messier 102) is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Draco. NGC 5866 was most likely discovered by Pierre Méchain or Charles Messier in 1781, and independently found by William Hersche ...
. By that criterion, they may all be as likely as
NGC 5866 NGC 5866 (also called the Spindle Galaxy or possibly Messier 102) is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Draco. NGC 5866 was most likely discovered by Pierre Méchain or Charles Messier in 1781, and independently found by William Hersche ...
to be the objects that correspond to M102. However, none of these galaxies are as bright or as high in surface brightness as NGC 5866, so it is less likely that these objects correspond to M102.


NGC 5928

NGC 5928 is a 14th
magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...
galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
located between ο Boötis and ι Serpentis. J. L. E. Dreyer, in his ''Notes and Corrections'' to the
New General Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxy, galaxies, star cluste ...
, suggested that this may have been the source identified as M102 on the basis that ι Serpentis may have been misidentified as ι Draconis in the location given for the object.J.L.E. Dreyer, ''New General Catalogue of Nebulæ and Clusters of Stars (1888), Index Catalogue (1895) Second Index Catalogue (1908)'', Royal Astronomical Society, London, 1971, p.283 However, it may not have been observable by Messier and Méchain, since even the faintest objects in Messier's catalogue are of roughly 10th magnitude, so it is unlikely to correspond to M102.


References


External links


SEDS Messier pages: Messier 102
* {{Ngc60
102 102 may refer to: *102 (number), the number * AD 102, a year in the 2nd century AD * 102 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 102 (ambulance service), an emergency medical transport service in Uttar Pradesh, India * 102 (Clyde) Field Squadron, Royal E ...
Unidentified astronomical objects Hypothetical galaxies Discoveries by Pierre Méchain Hypothetical astronomical objects