Binary and Multiple Stars
Click here to view a binary star from Messier’s catalog
The icon shows the 4-star system M73.
Binary and multiple stars are common in the universe. Stellar formation
results in multiple systems at least as often as in single stars like our
Sun, as observations suggest.
Although Messier’s catalog was intended to contain only nebulous objects
which may be taken for comets, and which we today have found to be
clusters, nebulae, or galaxies, and not binary or multiple stars which
hardly fall in this category, two have found their way into the Messier
These entries both were more positional notations, in the case of M40
for a mistake of Hevelius who had reported a nonexistent nebula, and in
the case of M73 for an auxilary position to measure M72.
Links
- Binary and Multiple Star Catalogs List
- View “other objects” in Messier’s Catalog
(those which are not galaxies, nebulae, or clusters)
Last Modification: 25 Jan 1998, 14:50 MET