Recently a group of astronomers from Texas State University tries to find the answer about the first discovery of Ring Nebula. Regarding this team lead, Prof. Donald Olson applied a distinct way of celestial sleuthing technique.
According to historical events, 18th-century French astronomer Antoine Darquier credited for the discovery of Ring Nebula. However, researcher doubted that there was someone else who had been forgotten. So, this brand new celestial sleuthing procedure is used to find the answer about the actual historical evidence.
A related article from Texas State University's News portal claimed that the celestial sleuthing technique is identified the actual person. Regarding this, researchers find Charles Messier, another French astronomer was the first person to observe the iconic Ring Nebula.
Nowadays, Messier is remembered for his catalog of 110 deep-sky objects and the Ring Nebula is enlisted as M57, reported by Phys.Org. Though, the actual purpose of the Messier Catalogue's is to provide a list of objects to avoid for comet-hunters. But recently it's used to track down those deep-sky objects. However, the celestial sleuthing technique shows that Messier first spotted the Ring Nebula on January 31, 1779.
Furthermore, the data from celestial sleuthing, Messier first spotted it while observing sky near the path known as Bode's comet. In his catalog, Messier recorded the pinpoint location of Ring Nebula. He explained that he observed this nebula as a round patch of light between two stars, γ & β Lyrae. However, his language puzzled researchers because he noted that M57 was discovered by Antoine Darquier in Toulouse.
Accessing the historical documents by celestial sleuthing procedure researchers find a letter that Darquier sent to Messier in September 1779. He wrote that until the second week of February he did not begin to observe sky near to Bode's comet. It means, Darquier never observed the Ring Nebula before February 10, 1779, more than a week after Messier's discovery.
