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80-542: The galaxy was discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783 during one of her systematic comet searches. About half a century later, John Herschel observed it using his 18-inch metallic mirror reflector at the Cape of Good Hope . He wrote: "very bright and large (24′ in length); a superb object.... Its light is somewhat streaky, but I see no stars in it except 4 large and one very small one, and these seem not to belong to it, there being many near..." In 1961, Allan Sandage wrote in

160-661: A supermassive black hole at its center. This one has mass of approximately 3 × 10 solar masses, as measured from stellar dynamics. In April 2010, radio astronomers working at the Jodrell Bank Observatory of the University of Manchester in the UK reported an object in M82 that had started sending out radio waves, and whose emission did not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before. There have been several theories about

240-486: A supermassive black hole in the center of this galaxy with a mass estimated to be 5 million times that of the Sun, which is slightly heavier than Sagittarius A* . At least two techniques have been used to measure distances to Sculptor in the past ten years. Using the planetary nebula luminosity function method, an estimate of 10.89 −1.24 million light years (or Mly; 3.34 −0.38 Megaparsecs , or Mpc)

320-422: A 9-inch telescope for her comet-searching, and discovered three more comets with this instrument. Her fifth comet was discovered on 15 December 1791 and the sixth on 7 October 1795. Caroline wrote in her journal during this time "My brother wrote an account of it to Sir J. Banks, Dr. Maskelyne, and to several astronomical correspondents" for the discovery of her fifth comet. Two years later, her eighth and last comet

400-453: A Gold Medal for Science on the occasion of her 96th birthday (1846). Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born in the town of Hanover Germany on 16 March 1750. She was the eighth child and fourth daughter of Isaak Herschel (1707–1767), a self-taught oboist , and his wife, Anna Ilse Moritzen (1710–1789). The Herschel family originated from Pirna in Saxony , near Dresden . Isaak became a bandmaster in

480-571: A catalog of 560 stars omitted from the British Catalogue and a list of the errata in that publication. Because Flamsteed's catalogue was organized by constellation, it was less useful to the Herschels, so Caroline created her own catalogue organized by north polar distance. The following morning, Caroline would go over her notes and write up formal observations, which she called "minding the heavens." During 1786–1797 she discovered eight comets ,

560-417: A catalogue of nebulae to assist her nephew John Herschel in his work. Her nephew thought highly of her, in fact he was quoted in 1832 as saying “She runs about the town with me and skips up her two flights of stairs as wonderfully fresh at least as some folks I could name who are not a fourth of her age… In the morning till eleven or twelve she is dull and weary, but as the day advances she gains life, and

640-470: A figure in her own right. Caroline made many discoveries independently of William and continued to work solo on many of the astronomical projects which contributed to her rise to fame. In 1802, the Royal Society published Caroline's catalogue in its Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A under William's name. This listed around 500 new nebulae and clusters to the already known 2,000. Toward

720-694: A government position. She was also the first woman to publish scientific findings in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, to be awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1828), and to be named an honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society (1835, with Mary Somerville ). She was named an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy (1838). The King of Prussia presented her with

800-456: A grass-plot covered with dew or hoar frost without a human being near enough to be within call. In the summer of 1783, William finished building a comet-searching telescope for Caroline, which she began to use immediately. Beginning in October 1783, the Herschels used a 20-foot reflecting telescope to search for nebulae. Initially, William attempted to both observe and record objects, but this too

880-489: A great many discrepancies in the star catalogue published by John Flamsteed , which was difficult to use because it had been published as two volumes, the catalogue proper and a volume of original observations, and contained many errors. William realised that he needed a proper cross-index to properly explore these differences but was reluctant to devote time to it at the expense of his more interesting astronomical activities. He therefore recommended to Caroline that she undertake

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960-661: A local teacher. She also learned to play the harpsichord, and eventually became an integral part in William's musical performances at small gatherings. She became the principal singer at his oratorio concerts, and acquired such a reputation as a vocalist that she was offered an engagement for the Birmingham festival after a performance of Handel 's Messiah in April 1778, where she was the first soloist. She declined to sing for any conductor but William, and after that performance, her career as

1040-482: A mass of 1.5 × 10 solar masses , and absolute magnitude of at least −15, and two others with 5 × 10 solar masses and absolute magnitudes around −11; later studies have discovered an even more massive cluster heavily obscured by NGC 253's interstellar dust with a mass of 1.4 × 10 solar masses, an age of around 5.7 × 10 years, and rich in Wolf-Rayet stars . The super star clusters are arranged in an ellipse around

1120-515: A number of potential supernova remnants in the galaxy in the 1980s and 90s. One supernova remnant displayed clear expansion between 1986 and 1997 that suggested it originally went supernova in the early 1960s, and two other remnants show possible expansion that could indicate an age almost as young, but could not be confirmed at the time. On 21 January 2014 at 19.20 UT, a new distinct star was observed in M82, at apparent magnitude +11.7, by astrophysics lecturer Steve Fossey and four of his students, at

1200-558: A place setting for Caroline Herschel. Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on her 266th birthday (16 March 2016). In 2023, the 57 densely handwritten pages of her diary were put on display in the music room of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath , the same place that Herschel resided. The documents cost the museum £108,000, making it by far the institution’s most expensive acquisition. Her earned salary from King George III made her

1280-424: A place". She was also aghast at the prices in the city and the fact that their domestic servant was imprisoned for theft at the time of her arrival. While William worked on a catalogue of 3,000 stars, studied double stars , and attempted to discover the cause of Mira 's and Algol 's variability, Caroline was asked to "sweep" the sky, meticulously moving through the sky in strips to search for interesting objects. She

1360-555: A professional singer. She became a significant astronomer in her own right as a result of her collaboration with him. The Herschels moved to a new house in March 1781 after their millinery business failed, and Caroline was guarding the leftover stock on 13 March, the night that William discovered the planet Uranus. Though he mistook it for a comet, his discovery proved the superiority of his new telescope. Caroline and William gave their last musical performance in 1782, when her brother accepted

1440-440: A singer began to decline. Caroline was subsequently replaced as a performer by distinguished soloists from outside the area because William wished to spend less time in rehearsals to focus on astronomy. When William became increasingly interested in astronomy, transforming himself from a musician to an astronomer, Caroline again supported his efforts. She said somewhat bitterly, in her Memoir, "I did nothing for my brother but what

1520-418: A telescope with a 300 mm diameter or larger. In such telescopes, it appears as a galaxy with a long, oval bulge and a mottled galactic disc . Although the bulge appears only slightly brighter than the rest of the galaxy, it is fairly extended compared to the disk. In 400 mm scopes and larger, a dark dust lane northwest of the nucleus is visible, and over a dozen faint stars can be seen superimposed on

1600-516: A trial period as a singer for musician brother William's church performances. Caroline eventually left Hanover on 15 August 1772 after her brothers intervened with their recalcitrant mother. On the journey to England, she was first introduced to astronomy by way of the constellations and opticians' shops. In Bath, she took on the responsibilities of running William's household, and began learning to sing. William had established himself as an organist and music teacher at 19 New King Street, Bath (now

1680-453: A well-trained puppy dog would have done, that is to say, I did what he commanded me." Ultimately, though, she became interested in astronomy and enjoyed her work. In the 1770s, as William became more interested in astronomy, he started to build his own telescopes from lenses he had ground, unhappy with the quality of lenses he was able to purchase. Caroline would feed him and read to him as he worked, despite her desire to burnish her career as

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1760-600: Is buried at 35 Marienstrasse in Hanover at the cemetery of the Gartengemeinde, next to her parents and with a lock of William's hair. Her tombstone inscription reads, "The eyes of her who is glorified here below turned to the starry heavens." With her brother, she discovered over 2,400 astronomical objects over twenty years. Herschel was honoured by the King of Prussia and the Royal Astronomical Society. The gold medal from

1840-400: Is fueled by energy released by supernovae within the clumps which occur at a rate of about one every ten years. The Chandra X-ray Observatory detected fluctuating X-ray emissions about 600 light-years from the center of M82. Astronomers have postulated that this comes from the first known intermediate-mass black hole , of roughly 200 to 5000 solar masses . M82, like most galaxies, hosts

1920-509: Is more sympathetic to Caroline's position, noting that the change was in many respects negative for Caroline. With the arrival of William's wife, Caroline lost her managerial and social responsibilities in the household and accompanying status. She also moved from the house to external lodgings, returning daily to work with her brother. She no longer held the keys to the observatory and workroom, where she had done much of her own work. As she destroyed her journals from 1788 to 1798, her feelings about

2000-409: Is quite ‘fresh and funny’ at ten or eleven p.m. and sings old rhymes, nay, even dances to the great delight of all who see her." John Herschel spent long periods with his aunt during the vacations and was greatly influenced by Caroline. She saw him educated at Cambridge, make a name for himself as a mathematician, become elected to the Royal Society, join his father in research in astronomy and be awarded

2080-475: Is that M82 was previously a low surface brightness galaxy where star formation was triggered due to interactions with its giant neighbor. Ignoring any difference in their respective distances from the Earth, the centers of M81 and M82 are visually separated by about 130,000 light-years. The actual separation is 300 +300 −200  kly . As a starburst galaxy, Messier 82 is prone to frequent supernova, caused by

2160-471: Is the prototypical example of this galaxy type. SN 2014J , a type Ia supernova , was discovered in the galaxy on 21 January 2014. In 2014, in studying M82, scientists discovered the brightest pulsar yet known, designated M82 X-2 . In November 2023, a gamma-ray burst was observed in M82, which was determined to have come from a magnetar , the first such event detected outside the Milky Way (and only

2240-472: Is the second-largest member of the M81 Group , with the D 25 isophotal diameter of 12.52 kiloparsecs (40,800 light-years ). It is about five times more luminous than the Milky Way and its central region is about one hundred times more luminous. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81 . As one of the closest starburst galaxies to Earth, M82

2320-493: The Great Comet of 1823 , which had already been discovered on 29 December 1823. Throughout the twilight of her life, Caroline remained physically active and healthy, and regularly socialized with other scientific luminaries. She spent her last years writing her memoirs and lamenting her body's limitations, which kept her from making any more original discoveries. Caroline Herschel died peacefully in Hanover on 9 January 1848. She

2400-461: The Herschel Museum of Astronomy ). He was also the choirmaster of the Octagon Chapel . William was busy with his musical career and became fairly busy organising public concerts. Caroline did not blend into the local society and made few friends, but was finally able to indulge her desire to learn, and took regular singing, English, and arithmetic lessons from her brother, and dance lessons from

2480-569: The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies that the Sculptor Galaxy is "the prototype example of a special subgroup of Sc systems....photographic images of galaxies of the group are dominated by the dust pattern. Dust lanes and patches of great complexity are scattered throughout the surface. Spiral arms are often difficult to trace.... The arms are defined as much by the dust as by the spiral pattern." Bernard Y. Mills , working out of Sydney , discovered that

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2560-614: The Sombrero Galaxy ) and the companion galaxies NGC 247 , PGC 2881 , PGC 2933 , Sculptor-dE1 , and UGCA 15 form a gravitationally-bound core near the center of the group. Most other galaxies associated with the Sculptor Group are only weakly gravitationally bound to this core. NGC 253's starburst has created several super star clusters on NGC 253's center (discovered with the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope): one with

2640-685: The Subaru Telescope to identify a faint dwarf galaxy disrupted by NGC 253. The satellite galaxy is called NGC 253-dw2 and may not survive its next passage by its much larger host. The host galaxy may suffer some damage too if the dwarf is massive enough. The interplay between the two galaxies is responsible for the disturbance in NGC 253's structure. Caroline Herschel Caroline Lucretia Herschel ( / ˈ h ɜːr ʃ əl , ˈ h ɛər ʃ əl / HUR -shəl, HAIR -shəl , German: [kaʁoˈliːnə ˈhɛʁʃl̩] ; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848)

2720-443: The University of London Observatory . It had brightened to magnitude +10.9 two days later. Examination of earlier observations of M82 found the supernova to figure on the intervening day as well as on 15 through 20 January, brightening from magnitude +14.4 to +11.3; it could not be found, to limiting magnitude +17, from images caught of 14 January. It was initially suggested that it could become as bright as magnitude +8.5, well within

2800-576: The Astronomical Society was awarded to her in 1828 "for her recent reduction, to January, 1800, of the [2,500] Nebulæ discovered by her illustrious brother, which may be considered as the completion of a series of exertions probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance in the annals of astronomical labour." She completed this work after her brother's death and her move to Hanover. The Royal Astronomical Society elected her an honorary member in 1835, along with Mary Somerville ; they were

2880-639: The Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his achievements. Caroline continued to assist William with his observations but her status had greatly improved from the housekeeper she had been in her young days. She was the guest of Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory in 1799 and a guest of members of the Royal Family at various times in 1816, 1817 and 1818. However, her observations were hampered by the architecture in Hanover, and she spent most of her time working on

2960-647: The Hanoverian Foot Guards, whom he first joined in 1731, and was away with his regiment for substantial periods. He became ill after the Battle of Dettingen (in the War of the Austrian Succession ) in 1743 and never recovered fully; he suffered a weak constitution, chronic pain, and asthma for the remainder of his life. The oldest of their daughters, Sophia Elizabeth Herschel (1733–1803), was sixteen years older, and

3040-637: The Herschel trove at the Royal Astronomical Society in London. On 26 February 1783, Caroline made her first discovery: she had found a nebula that was not included in the Messier catalogue . That same night, she independently discovered Messier 110 (NGC 205), the second companion of the Andromeda Galaxy . William then began to search himself for nebulae, sensing that there were many discoveries to be made. Caroline

3120-458: The NIR images. Even though the arms were detected in NIR images, they are bluer than the disk. The arms had been missed due to M82's high disk surface brightness , the nearly edge-on view of this galaxy (~80°), and obscuration by a complex network of dusty filaments in its optical images. These arms emanate from the ends of the NIR bar and can be followed for the length of 3 disc scales. Assuming that

3200-488: The Sculptor Galaxy is also a fairly strong radio source . In 1998, the Hubble Space Telescope took a detailed image of NGC 253. As one of the brightest galaxies in the sky, the Sculptor Galaxy can be seen through binoculars and is near the star Beta Ceti . It is considered one of the most easily viewed galaxies in the sky after the Andromeda Galaxy . The Sculptor Galaxy is a good target for observation with

3280-407: The Sculptor Galaxy. SN 1940E (type unknown, mag. 14) was discovered by Fritz Zwicky on 22 November 1940, located approximately 54″ southwest of the galaxy's nucleus. NGC 253 is close enough that classical novae can also be detected. The first confirmed nova in this galaxy was discovered by BlackGEM at magnitude 19.6 on 12 July 2024, and designated AT 2024pid. Research suggests the presence of

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3360-589: The boys. At the age of ten Caroline was struck with a severe case of typhus, which so stunted her growth that she never grew more than 4 feet 3 inches (1.30 m) tall; she also lost vision in her left eye as a result of the illness. Her family assumed that she would never marry and her mother thought better that she train to be a house servant than be educated in accordance with her father's wishes. However, her father sometimes took advantage of her mother's absence by tutoring her individually, or including her in her brother's lessons, such as violin. Caroline

3440-535: The bulge. Some people claim to have observed the galaxy with the unaided eye under exceptional viewing conditions. The Sculptor Galaxy is located at the center of the Sculptor Group , one of the nearest groups of galaxies to the Milky Way . The Sculptor Galaxy (the brightest galaxy in the group and one of the intrinsically brightest galaxies in the vicinity of ours, only surpassed by the Andromeda Galaxy and

3520-507: The catalogue. In 1828 the Royal Astronomical Society presented her with their Gold Medal for this work—no woman would be awarded it again until Vera Rubin in 1996. Upon William's death, her nephew, John Herschel, took over observing at Slough. Caroline had given him his first introduction into astronomy, when she showed him the constellations in Flamsteed's Atlas. Caroline added her final entry to her observing book on 31 January 1824 about

3600-458: The center of NGC 253, which from the Earth's perspective appears as a flat line. Star formation is also high in the northeast of NGC 253's disk, where a number of red supergiant stars can be found, and in its halo there are young stars as well as some amounts of neutral hydrogen . This, along with other peculiarities found in NGC 253, suggest that a gas-rich dwarf galaxy collided with it 200 million years ago, disturbing its disk and starting

3680-544: The collapse of young, massive stars. The first (although false) supernova candidate reported was SN 1986D, initially believed to be a supernova inside the galaxy until it was found to be a variable short-wavelength infrared source instead. The first confirmed supernova recorded in the galaxy was SN 2004am, discovered in March 2004 from images taken in November 2003 by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. It

3760-491: The core clusters, both super star clusters (SSCs) and their lighter counterparts. Stars in M82's disk seem to have been formed in a burst 500 million years ago, leaving its disk littered with hundreds of clusters with properties similar to globular clusters (but younger), and stopped 100 million years ago with no star formation taking place in this galaxy outside the central starburst and, at low levels since 1 billion years ago, on its halo . A suggestion to explain those features

3840-404: The discovery of each of these objects. William was summoned to Windsor Castle to demonstrate Caroline's comet to the royal family. William recorded this phenomenon, himself, terming it "My Sister's Comet." Caroline Herschel is often credited as the first woman to discover a comet; however, Maria Kirch discovered a comet in the early 1700s, but is often overlooked because at the time, the discovery

3920-579: The end of Caroline's life, she arranged 2,500 nebulae and star clusters into zones of similar polar distances so that her nephew, John Herschel, could re-examine them systematically. The list was eventually enlarged and renamed the New General Catalogue . Many non-stellar objects are still identified by their NGC number. After her brother died in 1822, Caroline was grief-stricken and moved back to Hanover, Germany, continuing her astronomical studies to verify and confirm William's findings and producing

4000-530: The entire Milky Way Galaxy . In the core of M82, the active starburst region spans a diameter of 500 pc . Four high surface brightness regions or clumps (designated A, C, D, and E) are detectable in this region at visible wavelengths. These clumps correspond to known sources at X-ray , infrared , and radio frequencies. Consequently, they are thought to be the least obscured starburst clusters from our vantage point. M82's unique bipolar outflow (or ' superwind ') appears to be concentrated on clumps A and C, and

4080-565: The execution of the various astronomical contrivances." William became known for his work on high performance telescopes, and Caroline found herself supporting his efforts. Caroline spent many hours polishing mirrors and mounting telescopes in order to maximize the amount of light captured. She learned to copy astronomical catalogues and other publications that William had borrowed. She also learned to record, reduce , and organize her brother's astronomical observations. She recognized that this work demanded speed, precision and accuracy. Caroline

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4160-559: The first female members. She was also elected as an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin in 1838. In 1846, at the age of 96, she was awarded a Gold Medal for Science by the King of Prussia , conveyed to her by Alexander von Humboldt , "in recognition of the valuable services rendered to Astronomy by you, as the fellow-worker of your immortal brother, Sir William Herschel, by discoveries, observations, and laborious calculations". The asteroid 281 Lucretia (discovered 1888)

4240-450: The first known professional female astronomer. The diary documents her life in the years 1755 to 1775, the years of Herschel's childhood in Hanover that included a large family which produced an ample number of musicians, and leading up to her first years living in Bath. In 2024, UK musician and singer-songwriter Jay Anderson released the single 'Moving' on Real Kind Records, a song dedicated to

4320-517: The first on 1 August 1786 while her brother was away and she was using his telescope. She had unquestioned priority as discoverer of five of the comets and rediscovered Comet Encke in 1795. Five of her comets were published in Philosophical Transactions. A packet of paper bearing the superscription, "This is what I call the Bills and Receipts of my Comets" contains some data connected with

4400-607: The fourth such event ever detected). M82, with M81 , was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774; he described it as a "nebulous patch", this one about 3 ⁄ 4 degree away from the other, "very pale and of elongated shape". In 1779, Pierre Méchain independently rediscovered both objects and reported them to Charles Messier , who added them to his catalog. M82 was believed to be an irregular galaxy . In 2005, however, two symmetric spiral arms were discovered in near-infrared (NIR) images of M82. The arms were detected by subtracting an axisymmetric exponential disk from

4480-403: The galaxy's core over the last 200 Myr. The most recent such encounter is thought to have happened around 2–5 × 10 years ago and resulted in a concentrated starburst together with a corresponding marked peak in the cluster age distribution. This starburst ran for up to ~50 Myr at a rate of ~10 M ⊙ per year. Two subsequent starbursts followed, the last (~4–6 Myr ago) of which may have formed

4560-416: The life and times of Caroline Herschel. He filmed a live acoustic version of the song at The Herschel Museum in Bath, sat in the old music room where Caroline and her brother used to rehearse for local concerts. [1] Messier 82 Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034 , Cigar Galaxy or M82 ) is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major . It

4640-405: The nature of this object, but currently no theory entirely fits the observed data. It has been suggested that the object could be an unusual "micro quasar", having very high radio luminosity yet low X-ray luminosity, and being fairly stable, it could be an analogue of the low X-ray luminosity galactic microquasar SS 433 . However, all known microquasars produce large quantities of X-rays, whereas

4720-469: The northern part of M82 is nearer to us, as most of the literature does, the observed sense of rotation implies trailing arms. In 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope revealed 197 young massive clusters in the starburst core. The average mass of these clusters is around 200,000 solar masses , hence the starburst core is a very energetic and high-density environment. Throughout the galaxy's center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside

4800-423: The object's X-ray flux is below the measurement threshold. The object is located at several arcseconds from the center of M82 which makes it unlikely to be associated with a supermassive black hole. It has an apparent superluminal motion of four times the speed of light relative to the galaxy center. Apparent superluminal motion is consistent with relativistic jets in massive black holes and does not indicate that

4880-403: The only surviving girl besides Caroline. She married violinist Johann Heinrich Griesbach (1730–1773) when Caroline was five, which resulted in the younger girl being tasked with much of the household drudgery. Caroline and the other children received a cursory education, learning to read and write and little more. Her father attempted to educate her at home but his efforts were more successful with

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4960-677: The period are not entirely known. In August 1799, Caroline was independently recognized for her work, when she spent a week in Greenwich as a guest of the royal family. Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond indicated she and her brother continued working well during this period. When her brother and his family were away from home, she often returned there to take care of it for them. In later life, she and Lady Herschel exchanged affectionate letters, and she became deeply attached to her nephew, astronomer John Herschel . William's marriage likely led to Caroline becoming more independent of her brother and more

5040-476: The present starburst. As happens in other galaxies suffering strong star formation such as Messier 82 , NGC 4631 , or NGC 4666 , the stellar winds of the massive stars produced in the starburst as well as their deaths as supernovae have blown out material to NGC 253's halo in the form of a superwind that seems to be inhibiting star formation in the galaxy. Although supernovae are generally associated with starburst galaxies, only one has been detected within

5120-463: The private office of court astronomer to King George III; the last few months of their musical career had been in shambles and were critically panned. William's interest in astronomy started as a hobby to pass time at night. At breakfast the next day he would give an impromptu lecture on what he had learned the night before. Caroline became as interested as William, stating that she was "much hindered in my practice by my help being continually wanted in

5200-438: The source itself is moving above lightspeed. M82 is being physically affected by its larger neighbor, the spiral M81 . Tidal forces caused by gravity have deformed M82, a process that started about 100 million years ago. This interaction has caused star formation to increase tenfold compared to "normal" galaxies. M82 has undergone at least one tidal encounter with M81 resulting in a large amount of gas being funneled into

5280-625: The task, which ultimately took 20 months. The resulting Catalogue of Stars, Taken from Mr. Flamsteed's Observations Contained in the Second Volume of the Historia Coelestis, and Not Inserted in the British Catalogue was published by the Royal Society in 1798 and contained an index of every observation of every star made by Flamsteed, a list of errata, and a list of more than 560 stars that had not been included. In 1825, Caroline donated

5360-467: The visual range of small telescopes and large binoculars, but peaked at fainter +10.5 on the last day of the month. Preliminary analysis classified it as "a young, reddened type Ia supernova ". The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has designated it SN 2014J. SN 1993J was also at relatively close distance, in M82's larger companion galaxy M81 . SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud

5440-481: The works of Flamsteed to the Royal Academy of Göttingen . Throughout her writings, she repeatedly made it clear that she desired to earn an independent wage and be able to support herself. When the crown began paying her for her assistance to her brother in 1787, she became the first woman—at a time when even men rarely received wages for scientific enterprises—to receive a salary for services to science. Her pension

5520-449: Was a German astronomer , whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet , which bears her name. She was the younger sister of astronomer William Herschel , with whom she worked throughout her career. She was the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist and the first woman in England to hold

5600-450: Was achieved in 2005. The Sculptor Galaxy is close enough that the tip of the red-giant branch (TRGB) method may also be used to estimate its distance. The estimated distance to Sculptor using this technique in 2004 yielded 12.8 ± 1.2 Mly ( 3.94 ± 0.37 Mpc ). A weighted average of the most reliable distance estimates gives a distance of 11.4 ± 0.7 Mly ( 3.5 ± 0.2 Mpc ). An international team of researchers has used

5680-436: Was asked to move from the high culture of Bath to the relative backwater of Datchet in 1782, a small town near Windsor Castle where William would be on hand to entertain royal guests. He presumed that Caroline would become his assistant, a role she did not initially accept. She was unhappy with the accommodations they had taken; the house they rented for three years had a leaky ceiling and Caroline described it as "the ruins of

5760-515: Was attributed to her husband, Gottfried Kirch . She wrote a letter to the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne to announce the discovery of her second comet. In December 1788, Maskelyne wrote back congratulating her. The third comet was discovered on 7 January 1790, and the fourth one on 17 April 1790. She announced both of these to Sir Joseph Banks , and all were discovered with her 1783 telescope. In 1791, Caroline began to use

5840-471: Was briefly allowed to learn dress-making. Though she learned to do needlework from a neighbour, her efforts were stymied by long hours of household chores. To prevent her from becoming a governess and earning her independence that way, she was forbidden to learn French or more advanced needlework than what she could pick up from neighbours. Following her father's death, her brothers William and Alexander proposed that she join them in Bath, England , to have

5920-505: Was discovered on 6 August 1797, the only comet she discovered without optical aid. She announced this discovery by sending a letter to Banks. In 1787, she was granted an annual salary of £50 (equivalent to £8,000 in 2024 ) by George III for her work as William's assistant. Caroline's appointment made her the first woman in England honoured with an official government position, and the first woman to be paid for her work in astronomy. In 1797 William's observations had shown that there were

6000-416: Was inefficient and he again turned to Caroline. She sat by a window inside, William shouted his observations, and Caroline recorded. This was not a simple clerical task, however, because she would have to use John Flamsteed 's catalogue to identify the star William used as a reference point for the nebulae. In 1798 Caroline presented to the Royal Society an index to John Flamsteed’s observations, together with

6080-532: Was later determined to be a Type II supernova . In 2008, a radio transient was detected in the galaxy, designated SN 2008iz and thought to be a possible radio-only supernova, being too obscured in visible light by dust and gas clouds to be detectable. A similar radio-only transient was reported in 2009, although never received a formal designation and was similarly unconfirmed. Prior to accurate and thorough supernova surveys, many other supernovae likely occurred in previous decades. The European VLBI Network studied

6160-651: Was named after Caroline's second given name, and the crater C. Herschel on the Moon is named after her. The open clusters NGC 2360 (Caroline's Cluster) and NGC 7789 (Caroline's Rose) are unofficially nicknamed in her honour. On 6 November 2020, a satellite named after her ( ÑuSat 10 or "Caroline", COSPAR 2020-079B) was launched into space. Adrienne Rich 's 1968 poem "Planetarium" celebrates Caroline Herschel's life and scientific achievements. Judy Chicago 's 1969 artwork The Dinner Party , which celebrates historical women who have made extraordinary contributions, features

6240-401: Was relegated to a ladder on William's 20-foot reflector, attempting impossible measurements of double stars. William quickly realized his method of searching for nebulae was inefficient and he required an assistant to keep records. Naturally, he turned to Caroline. But it was not til the last two months of the same year before I felt the least encouragement for spending the starlight nights on

6320-445: Was unhappy with this task at the beginning of her work, longing for the culture of Bath and feeling isolated and lonely, but gradually developed a love for the work. On 28 August 1782, Caroline initiated her first record book. She inscribed the first three opening pages: "This is what I call the Bills & Rec.ds of my Comets", "Comets and Letters", and "Books of Observations". This, along with two subsequent books, currently belong to

6400-414: Was £50 a year, and it was the first money that Caroline had ever earned in her own right. When William married a rich widow, Mary Pitt (née Baldwin) in 1788, the union caused tension in the brother-sister relationship. Caroline has been referred to as a bitter, jealous woman who worshipped her brother and resented those who invaded their domestic lives. In his book The Age of Wonder , Richard Holmes

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