What was the first nebula ever discovered?

Question

What was the first nebula ever discovered?

Answer 1

The first Planetary Nebula to be discovered was the Dumbbell Nebula (M27), but I think the Crab Nebula (M1) was discovered earlier - this is a supernova remnant.

And it is likely that the Orion Nebula was discovered earlier - since it is visible to the naked eye.

Answer 2

Its important to note that the word 'nebula' was first used to describe any extended astronomical object, and comes from the Latin word for 'mist'. Before Edwin Hubble discovered that the Universe was made up of billions of galaxies, everyone thought the Milky Way was the entire Universe, and everything else they saw was within it. The Andromeda Galaxy was called the Andromeda Nebula before this.

Back to the actual answer, the first nebulae were found and cataloged by Charles Messier in the 18th century. I believe the first one he noted was the Crab Nebula, or M1, in 1758. That's why some are designated as M1, M2, etc. They were in Messier's catalog. He also noted galaxies because, as I said above, they were the same thing back then.

Answer 3

The Orion Nebula (M42) and the Coalsack are visible to the unaided eye, and so are the first nebulas "discovered".  M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, was called a nebula until the 1940s (later for a few conservatives), but was recognized as a true galaxy following the work of Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason.

Galileo observed the Orion Nebula with his primitive telescope, and it is marked on the star chart of Orion that he placed in his 1612 book, Sidereus Nuncius, depicting what he could see in the telescope.

Subsequent 17th Century astronomers began finding plenty of other nebulas.

The Coalsack is an obscuring nebula sitting athwart the Milky Way, and was long regarded as a "hole in heaven" (to use William Herschel's phrase) prior to being recognized as a nebula.

Answer 4

The Orion Nebula is generally credited as being first discovered in 1610 by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc as noted in Peiresc's own records.

I thought i'd read somewhere that there is a somewhat vague ancient Greek reference to it.  However, I can't find a reference.

Answer 5

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