ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars

Okay kiddo, do you know what a nebula is? It's like a big cloud of gas and dust in space. And a star cluster is a bunch of stars that are stuck together because of gravity.

Now, imagine there are lots and lots of these clouds and clusters in space, and scientists want to study and keep track of all of them. That's where the catalogue of nebulae and clusters of stars comes in.

It's like a big list or book that has information about all of these clouds and clusters. Scientists use really big telescopes to look at these objects and take pictures of them, and then they write down information like what they look like, how big they are, and how far away they are from us.

Having this big list is helpful because scientists can compare different nebulae and star clusters, and learn more about how they form and behave. It's kind of like having a big book of pictures of all the different types of animals in the world, so you can learn about them and compare them to each other.

So yeah, the catalogue of nebulae and clusters of stars is just a big list of these cool things in space that scientists study and learn from.