Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. On Oct. 13, 1773, a French astronomer named Charles Messier discovered the "whirlpool galaxy," also known as Messier 51, or M51.

I have an unusual affliction, and have suffered from it since I was a kid. My dad, John, was a professor of organic chemistry and also very involved in a range of other interests, one of which was ...

Hundreds of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been recorded as part of an enormous global effort so extensive it 'rivals the catalog of deep-sky objects created by Messier 250 years ago', astronomers say.

The Sombrero galaxy has long had a place in astronomical history as an intriguing object. The first written record of this galaxy was noted in 1781, almost 250 years ago, by Pierre Méchain, a French ...

Lurking in the southwestern corner of Aquarius the Water-bearer, globular cluster M72 doesn't stand out. At magnitude 9.4, it ranks among the dimmest globulars Charles Messier included in his ...

On Oct. 13, 1773, Charles Messier spotted the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) for the first time. Writing of it a few months later, he described the object as a "very faint nebula without any stars"; it would ...