女巫星云施放星空咒语

This 2013 image taken by NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, captures a nebula that looks like a witch screaming. Perhaps that imagined scream is a creation spell, for the Witch Hat nebula’s billowy clouds are a star nursery. We can see these clouds thanks to massive stars lighting them up; dust in the cloud is being hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light, which was picked up by WISE’s detectors.

WISE launched to near-Earth orbit on Dec. 14, 2009, and surveyed the full sky in four infrared wavelength bands until the frozen hydrogen cooling the telescope was depleted in September 2010. The spacecraft was placed into hibernation in February 2011, having completed its primary astrophysics mission.

In late 2013, the spacecraft was resurrected – no incantation needed – when NASA’s Planetary Science Division gave it a new mission and a new name: NEOWISE. The spacecraft began helping NASA identify and describe near-Earth objects (NEOs). NEOs are comets and asteroids that have been nudged into orbits that allow them to enter Earth’s neighborhood. NEOWISE was decommissioned Aug. 8, 2024, and placed into hibernation for the last time, ending its career as an active asteroid hunter.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

这张2013年的照片是由NASA的广域红外探测探测器（WISE）拍摄，它拍摄到了一个看起来像女巫尖叫的星云。也许那想象中的尖叫是一种创造咒语，，因为女巫帽星云的滚滚云团是一个恒星形成区。我们之所以能看到这些云，是因为大质量的恒星照亮了它们；云中的尘埃受到星光的撞击，使其发出红外光，WISE的探测器拍摄到了红外光。

WISE于2009年12月14日发射到近地轨道，并在四个红外波段对整个天空进行了观测，直到2010年9月冷却望远镜的冷冻氢耗尽。在完成了主要的天体物理任务后，该航天器于2011年2月进入休眠状态。

2013年底，该航天器复活了——无需咒语——NASA的行星科学部门给了它一个新的任务和一个新的名字：NEOWISE。该航天器开始帮助NASA识别和描述近地天体（NEOs）。近地天体是彗星和小行星，它们被挤入轨道，从而进入地球附近。NEOWISE于2024年8月8日退役，并最后一次进入冬眠状态，结束了它作为活跃的小行星猎手的职业生涯。

影像来源: NASA/JPL-Caltech