Title
M77 and NGC 1055
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Description
Funny how discoveries are made...In 1780 Pierre Mechain saw "something" in the constellation of Cetus, the Whale. He told to his buddy Charles Messier, who then put into his catalog as M 77. Messier called it a star cluster. It turns out it was a galaxy. What is so funny about this? They did not see another galaxy, 60 million light years away but, due to a trick of perspective, appearing quite close to M77. Herschel saw it a few years later. The new galaxy is NGC 1055 (M77 is also known as NGC 1068) In this picture there are 3 other small galaxies. Can you see them? Also nice are the two bright stars near NGC 1055 which clearly show their different color.
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