火星与星团

2022年12月30日

Mars and the Star Clusters
Image Credit & Copyright: Gabor Balazs

Explanation: At this year’s end Mars still shines brightly in planet Earth’s night as it wanders through the head-strong constellation Taurus. Its bright yellowish hue dominates this starry field of view that includes Taurus’ alpha star Aldebaran and the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. While red giant Aldebaran appears to anchor the V-shape of the Hyades at the left of the frame, Aldebaran is not a member of the Hyades star cluster. The Hyades cluster is 151 light-years away making it the nearest established open star cluster, but Aldebaran lies at less than half that distance, along the same line-of-sight. At the right, some 400 light-years distant is the open star cluster cataloged as Messier 45, also known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. In Greek myth, the Pleiades were daughters of the astronomical titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione.

Tomorrow’s picture: so nice, they named it twice

火星与星团
图像提供与版权: Gabor Balazs

说明: 到了年关将尽，目前漫游到金牛座的火星，在地球的夜空中依然非常明亮。在这片包括金牛座最亮星毕宿五、毕宿星团（Pleiades；普勒阿得斯）、及昴宿星团在内的星场里，散发泛黄光芒的火星是其中最明亮的天体即可为证。虽然红巨星毕宿五，看似为图像左侧的V形毕宿星团之定锚，不过毕宿五并非毕宿星团的成员。距离我们151光年的毕宿星团，是最邻近我们的疏散星团，而位在相同视线方向的毕宿五，距离不到一半。在图像右侧，亦称为昴宿星团或七姐妹星团的疏散星团M45，其距离约为400光年远。在希腊神话里，普勒阿得斯是泰坦神阿特拉斯和海妖普里俄涅的女儿。

明日的图片: so nice，they named it twice