Messier

See also: messier

English
Nicolas Anseaume's portrait of Charles Messier (1771)

Proper noun

Messier

  1. An occupational surname of French origin, famously held by:
    1. Charles Messier (1730-1817), a French astronomer who between 1774 and 1781 published his Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters, a catalogue of deep-sky objects.
      1. (astronomy) As a designation, the numbered objects in Messier's catalog are prepended with his surname or the letter M.
        Messier 31 (M31) is the Andromeda Galaxy; Messier 42 (M42) is the Orion Nebula

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