NGC 1435
Template:Short description Template:Infobox nebula The Merope Nebula (also known as Tempel's Nebula and NGC 1435) is a diffuse reflection nebula in the Pleiades star cluster, surrounding the 4th magnitude star Merope. It was discovered on October 19, 1859 by the German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel. The discovery was made using a 10.5 cm refractor.<ref name=Steinicke523>Template:Cite book</ref> John Herschel included it as 768 in his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars but never observed it himself.<ref name=Steinicke528>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Merope Nebula has an apparent magnitude starting at 13<ref name="seds"/> and quickly dimming by a factor of about 15,<ref name=Herbig1996>Template:Cite journal</ref> making most of the nebula dimmer than magnitude 16. It is illuminated entirely by the star Merope, which is embedded in the nebula. It contains a bright knot, IC 349,<ref name="seds"/> about half an arcminute wide near Merope, which was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard in November 1890. It is naturally very bright but is almost hidden in the radiance of Merope.<ref>Merope, Star-Names and their meanings, Richard Hinckley Allen, Dover Publications, 1963, pg. 406.</ref> It appears blue in photographs because of the fine carbon dust spread throughout the cloud. Though it was once thought the Pleiades formed from this and surrounding nebulae, it is now known that the Pleiades nebulosity is caused by a chance encounter with the cloud.
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