Does our Milky Way Galaxy have a number. UFO people talk about the Pliedies and the Andromedia Galaxy. Is the Pliedies in our Milky Way Galaxy or the Andromedia Galaxy? Is there a good web site where I can learn about the placement and numbering of galaxies.
2007-02-02 01:50:06 · 7 answers · asked by JoAnn W 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
There is no one universal numbering scheme for astronomical objects.
The M number you refer to when talking about the Andromeda Galaxy comes from the Messier Catalog number. Charles Messier (1730 - 1817) was a French astronomer who started a catalog of nebulae that he could see in his telescope. M1, the first object he recorded (1758), is the famous Crab Nebula, the remnant of the supernova of 1054 -- which he thought at first was Halley's Comet, but when it didn't move in the sky over subsequent nights, Messier recognized his mistake.
The Andromeda Galaxy was a fuzzy patch in the telescopes of the day, and was listed as M31. It wasn't until many years later, when telescopes got much more powerful, that astronomers realised that M31 was not a cloud of gas, but was in fact a huge cloud of stars!
There are several competing catalog systems these days -- there's the NGC - the New Galactic Catalog, and the IGC, and a whole bunch of others.
Check out some of the reference articles for more info.
2007-02-02 02:12:58 · answer #1 · answered by Dave_Stark 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Pleiades is a star cluster, not a galaxy - it is located in the Milky Way galaxy. The Andromeda galaxy is the next closest galaxy to our own, and it is faintly visible to the naked eye (+4 magnitude).
I don't know of any websites where you can get a list of galaxies, but I'm sure there are some out there. I use Starry Night Pro software for that.
2007-02-02 02:00:02 · answer #2 · answered by Tikimaskedman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I could selection with the 1st poster on the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy. that's style of greater great than the Milky way. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the biggest member of the "close by team" that's composed of Andromeda, our galaxy (The Milky way), The Triangulum Galaxy (M33) and approximately 30 smaller galaxies. On moonless nights, that's faintly seen by using bare eye, and easily seen in binoculars. present day observations have concluded it includes one thousand billion stars. that's approximately 2.5 million easy years from Earth and headed this way. it is going to collide with the Milky way in approximately 5 billion years. wish this helps.
2016-11-24 19:05:50 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
M31 stands for object #31 in Charles Messier's list of astronomical objects. He lived from 1730 to 1817. There are 110 objects on his list.
The Pleiades is (are?) M45.
There are other catalogs, such as the Principal Galaxy Catalog (PGC), and the New Galaxy Catalog (NGC), that list many more galaxies.
Since the Milly Way does not appear as a single object to astronomers, I don't think they include in their calalogs.
2007-02-02 02:05:44 · answer #4 · answered by morningfoxnorth 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There are numbers associated with stars and galaxies and nebulae. Most items in our galaxy have labels associated with the. In fact there are so many different catalogs of naming things, it's ridiculous. The Pleides are in our galaxy. Andromeda only looks like a fuzzy patch in the sky. Here's a good place to start with number systems -- Messier Catalog. (with photo's)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Messier_objects
2007-02-02 02:04:22 · answer #5 · answered by Gene 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Other galaxies are invisible to the naked eye except andromeda and maybe one other. But those 2 galaxies just look like little smudgy stars. We can't distinguish any individual stars. All stars you see are in our galaxy
2007-02-02 02:25:00 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
All the stars that you can see are in our galaxy.
2007-02-02 02:19:45 · answer #7 · answered by CLICKHEREx 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋