As one of the first female astronomers of history, Caroline Hershel started work in the field by assisting her brother, but she became increasingly interested and following his marriage she continued to make her own discoveries independently. Due to this independent work she became the first woman to be paid for scientific research in an era when men were rarely paid for investigative science also. Her work, a record of around 500 new nebulae which she to a structured list of 2500 celestial objects, formed the basis for the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, the catalogue of all known objects of space that is still in use today.