反射的星光

This Hubble Space Telescope image captures a portion of the reflection nebula IC 2631, which contains a protostar, the hot, dense core of a forming star that is accumulating gas and dust. Eventually, the protostar may gravitationally gather enough matter to begin nuclear fusion and emit its own energy and starlight.

这张哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的图像捕捉到了反射星云IC2631的一部分，其中包含一颗原恒星，即正在积聚气体和尘埃的正在形成的恒星的炽热致密核心。最终，原恒星可能会在引力作用下聚集足够的物质，开始核聚变，并释放出自身的能量和星光。

Reflection nebulae are clouds of gas and dust that reflect the light from nearby stars. The starlight scatters through the gas and dust like a flashlight beam shining on mist in the dark and illuminates it. Because of the way light scatters when it hits the fine dust of the interstellar medium, these nebulae are often bluish in color.

反射星云是由气体和尘埃组成的云团，能够反射来自附近恒星的光。星光在气体和尘埃中散射，就像手电筒的光束照射在黑暗中照亮了薄雾一样。由于光线在接触到星际介质中的细尘埃时的散射方式，这些星云通常呈蓝色。

Hubble observed this nebula while looking for disks of gas and dust around young stars. Such disks are left over from the formation of the star and may eventually form planets.

哈勃在寻找年轻恒星周围的气体和尘埃盘时观测到了这个星云。这些尘埃盘是恒星形成时遗留下来的，最终可能形成行星。

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

图片来源：NASA、ESA和K.Stapelfeldt（喷气推进实验室）；图片处理：Gladys Kober（美国宇航局/美利坚天主教大学）