NGC 6188：天坛座的龙形云气

2020年7月28日

NGC 6188: The Dragons of Ara
Image Credit & Copyright: Ariel L. Cappelletti

Explanation: Dark shapes with bright edges winging their way through dusty NGC 6188 are tens of light-years long. The emission nebula is found near the edge of an otherwise dark and large molecular cloud in the southern constellation Ara, about 4,000 light-years away. Born in that region only a few million years ago, the massive young stars of the embedded Ara OB1 association sculpt the fantastic shapes and power the nebular glow with stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The recent star formation itself was likely triggered by winds and supernova explosions, from previous generations of massive stars, that swept up and compressed the molecular gas. The featured image accumulated over 10 hours through a backyard telescope in Córdoba, Argentina and was false-colored using the Hubble palette highlighting emission from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in red, green, and blue hues. The field of view spans about four full Moons, corresponding to about 150 light years at the estimated distance of NGC 6188.

Tomorrow’s picture: open space

NGC 6188：天坛座的龙形云气
影像提供与版权: Ariel L. Cappelletti

说明: 这些长约数十光年、镶着银边的黝黑云气，漂流在满是尘埃的NGC 6188之内。这团发射星云，则位在天坛座内一个黝黑庞大分子云的边缘，离我们约4,000光年远。在这个星云内，刚在数百万年前形成/a>的天坛座OB1星协之大质量年轻恒星，发出的强烈紫外辐射和恒星风，不但雕塑出这些奇形怪状的云气，也激发云气散发辉光。这些近期的恒星形成活动，可能因为先前世代的大质量恒星之恒星风和超新星爆炸，扫集和压缩分子云气所触发的。这幅主题影像，建构自智利．哥多华市一部后院望远镜在10个多小时期间收集的影像数据，并以哈伯假色表将硫、氢和氧原子的辐射，映射成红、绿、蓝等色泽。这张影像的视野宽约4个满月，以NGC 6188的距离来换算，大约等于150光年宽的区域。

明日的图片: open space