旋涡星系NGC 6744

2019 December 5

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
Image Credit & Copyright: Zhuokai Liu, Jiang Yuhang

Explanation: Beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way. It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo and appears as only a faint, extended object in small telescopes. We see the disk of the nearby island universe tilted towards our line of sight in this remarkably detailed galaxy portrait, a telescopic view that spans an area about the angular size of a full moon. In it, the giant galaxy’s elongated yellowish core is dominated by the light from old, cool stars. Beyond the core, grand spiral arms are filled with young blue star clusters and speckled with pinkish star forming regions. An extended arm sweeps past a smaller satellite galaxy (NGC 6744A) at the lower right. NGC 6744’s galactic companion is reminiscent of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud.

旋涡星系NGC 6744
影像来源与版权: Zhuokai Liu, Jiang Yuhang

说明：美丽旋涡星系NGC 6744的跨度将近17万5千光年，比我们的银河系还要大。它位于南天的孔雀座内，距离我们约3千万光年远，在小型望远镜中，它只是一个黯淡弥散的天体。在这幅非常精细的星系影像中，我们可以看到邻近的岛宇宙盘面朝着我们的视线方向倾斜。这幅望远镜影像覆盖了大约一个满月角直径的天区。在影像中，这个庞大星系的细长淡黄色核心是由许多古老的冷星组成。在星系核之外的宏伟旋臂上布满了年轻的蓝色星团和粉色的恒星形成区。其中，一条长长的旋臂扫过影像右下方的较小伴星系NGC 6744A。NGC 6744的伴星系使人联想到银河系的伴星系大麦哲伦星系。