哈勃望远镜拍摄的宇宙珊瑚

2020 April 25

Hubble’s Cosmic Reef
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI

Explanation: These bright ridges of interstellar gas and dust are bathed in energetic starlight. With its sea of young stars, the massive star-forming region NGC 2014 has been dubbed the Cosmic Reef. Drifting just off shore, the smaller NGC 2020, is an expansive blue-hued structure erupting from a single central Wolf-Rayet star, 200,000 times brighter than the Sun. The cosmic frame spans some 600 light-years within the Large Magellanic Cloud 160,000 light-years away, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. A magnificent Hubble Space Telescope portrait, the image was released this week as part of a celebration to mark Hubble’s 30th year exploring the Universe from Earth orbit.

Tomorrow’s picture: 100th Anniversary

哈伯望远镜拍摄的宇宙珊瑚
影像提供: NASA, ESA, STScI

说明: 这些陆块般的明亮尘埃和气体脊，沐浴在高能的星光里。而在这片视野里，大质量恒星形成区NGC 2014拥有宇宙珊瑚的令名，因为它酷似“恒星海”邻近陆块的一座珊瑚礁岛。不过，它广延的泛蓝结构，其实是源自中心那颗亮度高达太阳200,000倍以上的沃夫-瑞叶型恒星。这片视野涵盖我们银河系的伴星系——大麦哲伦星系内，宽约600光年的区域。这幅由哈伯太空望远镜所拍摄，并发布于这星期的壮丽影像，是哈勃望远镜在地球轨道上探索宇宙30周年庆祝活动的献礼之一。

明日的图片: 100th Anniversary