M45: 阿特拉斯和普勒俄涅的女儿们

2023年1月5日

Messier 45: The Daughters of Atlas and Pleione
Image Credit & Copyright: Stefan Thrun

Explanation: Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters open star cluster is well-known for its striking blue reflection nebulae. It lies in the night sky toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky Way galaxy. The sister stars are not related to the dusty cloud though. They just happen to be passing through the same region of space. Known since antiquity as a compact grouping of stars, Galileo first sketched the star cluster viewed through his telescope with stars too faint to be seen by eye. Charles Messier recorded the position of the cluster as the 45th entry in his famous catalog of things which are not comets. In Greek myth, the Pleiades were seven daughters of the astronomical titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione. Their parents names are included in the cluster’s nine brightest stars. This well-processed, color-calibrated telescopic image features pin-point stars and detailed filaments of interstellar dust captured in over 9 hours of exposure. It spans more than 20 light-years across the Pleiades star cluster.

Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space

M45: 阿特拉斯和普勒俄涅的女儿们
图像提供与版权: Stefan Thrun

说明: 正在穿过距离我们只有400光年远的宇宙尘埃云之昴宿星团（Pleiades亦称七姐妹星团），以其鲜明的泛蓝反射星云著称。在夜空中，这个星团位在金牛座方向的银河系猎户臂上。七姐妹星团其实和这团宇宙尘埃云并无关联，它们只是凑巧同时通过相同空间而已。伽利略曾用他所制作的望远镜，观测过这个自远古就广为周知的致密星群，并首先绘出其中肉眼不得见的暗星。梅西耶更记录了这个星团的位置，并将之收录到他编辑的“确定不是彗星”星表里，成为其中的第45号天体。在希腊神话里，普勒阿得斯是泰坦神阿特拉斯与海妖普勒俄涅的7个女儿。这对父母的名字，后来成为昴宿星团最亮的九颗星之二的星名。这幅经过仔细处理、色彩校准、曝光时间超过9小时的望远镜图像，清楚呈现其中的点状恒星和丝状星际尘埃的细微结构。这幅图像涵盖了昴宿星团超过20光年的区域。（Atlas阿特拉斯；Pleione普勒俄涅；Pleiades普勒阿得斯）

明日的图片: pixels in space