Editing Messier 3 (section)

== Discovery ==
It was discovered on May 3, 1764,<ref name="machholz2002" /> and was the first Messier object to be discovered by [[Charles Messier]] himself. Messier originally mistook the object for a nebula without stars. This mistake was corrected after the stars were resolved by [[William Herschel]] around 1784.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-3|title=Messier 3|last=Garner|first=Rob|date=2017-10-06|work=NASA|access-date=2018-04-13|language=en}}</ref> Since then, it has become one of the best-studied globular clusters. Identification of the cluster's unusually large [[variable star]] population was begun in 1913 by American astronomer [[Solon Irving Bailey]] and new variable members continue to be identified up through 2004.<ref name="aaa487_1_185" />