Editing Ring Nebula (section)

==History==
This nebula was discovered by the French astronomer [[Charles Messier]] while searching for [[comet]]s in late January 1779. Messier's report of his independent discovery of [[Comet Bode]] reached fellow French astronomer [[Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix]] two weeks later, who then independently rediscovered the nebula while following the comet. Darquier later reported that it was "...as large as Jupiter and resembles a planet which is fading" (which may have contributed to the use of the persistent "planetary nebula" terminology).<ref>
{{cite magazine
| last1        = Olson
| first1       = Don
| last2        = Caglieris
| first2       = Giovanni Maria
| date         = June 2017
| title        = Who Discovered the Ring Nebula?
| magazine     = Sky & Telescope
| pages        = 32–7
}}</ref> It would be entered into [[Messier object|Messier's catalogue]] as the 57th object. Messier and German-born astronomer [[William Herschel]] speculated that the nebula was formed by multiple faint stars that were unresolvable with his telescope.<ref>
{{cite book
 | first=Robert A. | last=Garfinkle
 | date=1997
 | title=Star-hopping: Your Visa to Viewing the Universe
 | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]
 | isbn=978-0-521-59889-7
 | oclc=37355269
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 | first=Charles | last=Messier
 | date=1780
 | chapter=Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Étoiles
 | title=Connoissance des Temps for 1783
 | pages=225–249
}}</ref>

In 1800, German Count [[Friedrich von Hahn]] announced that he had discovered the faint central star at the heart of the nebula a few years earlier. He also noted that the interior of the ring had undergone changes, and said he could no longer find the central star.<ref name=steinicke2010/> In 1864, English [[Amateur astronomy|amateur astronomer]] [[William Huggins]] examined the spectra of multiple nebulae, discovering that some of these objects, including M57, displayed the spectra of bright [[emission line]]s characteristic of fluorescing glowing gases. Huggins concluded that most planetary nebulae were not composed of unresolved stars, as had been previously suspected, but were nebulosities.<ref>
{{cite web
 | last=Frommert | first=Hartmut
 |author2=Kronberg, Christine
  | url=http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/huggins.html
 | title=William Huggins (February 7, 1824 – May 12, 1910)
 | publisher=[[Students for the Exploration and Development of Space|SEDS]]
 | access-date=2008-04-11 |df=ymd
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
 | last=Huggins | first=W.
 |author2=Miller, W. A.
  | title=On the Spectra of Some of the Nebulae. And On the Spectra of Some of the Fixed Stars
 | journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society of London]]
 | date=1863–1864 | volume=13
 | pages=491–493
 | jstor=112077
 | doi=10.1098/rspl.1863.0094
| doi-access=free
 }}</ref> The nebula was first photographed by the Hungarian astronomer [[Eugene von Gothard]] in 1886.<ref name=steinicke2010/>