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Messier Object 40 |
 | | M40 was apparently the last one he recorded when he was busy in checking the reports available to him in 1764, of previously recorded "nebulae." |
| | According to his analysis, the brighter component was measured at a distance of 510 light years (corresponding to a parallax of 6.4 milli arc seconds, and a "distance module, m-M", of roughly 6.0 - this is the difference between apparent and absolute magnitude). |
| | A fresh investigation of the nature of M40 was undertaken by Richard Nugent (2002); his results support the hypothesis of an optical double star, i.e. |
| www.seds.org /messier/m/m040.html (928 words) |
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