Quote#Wisdom
Nebulæ can be selected so that an insensible gradation shall take…
Quote byWilliam Herschel · 1738–1822
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Sir William Herschel: His Life and Works (1880), Ch.4 "Life and Works".
English (original)
Nebulæ can be selected so that an insensible gradation shall take place from a coarse cluster like the Pleiades down to a milky nebulosity like that in Orion, every intermediate step being represented. This tends to confirm the hypothesis that all are composed of stars more or less remote.
— William Herschel
More from William Herschel
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A knowledge of the construction of the heavens has always been the ultimate object of my observations...
I compared it to H Geminorum and the small star in the quartile between Auriga and Gemini, and finding it so much larger than either of them, suspected it to be a comet.
I must freely confess that by continuing my sweeps of the heavens my opinion of the arrangement of the stars and their magnitudes, and of some other particulars, has undergone a gradual change...
An object may not only contain stars, but also nebulosity not composed of them.