LDN 1622: 恶灵星云

2023年1月25日

LDN 1622: The Boogeyman Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Joshua Carter

Explanation: To some, the dark shape looks like a mythical boogeyman. Scientifically, Lynds’ Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears against a faint background of glowing hydrogen gas only visible in long telescopic exposures of the region. In contrast, the brighter reflection nebula vdB 62 is more easily seen just above and to the right of center in the featured image. LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, close on the sky to Barnard’s Loop, a large cloud surrounding the rich complex of emission nebulae found in the Belt and Sword of Orion. With swept-back outlines, the obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought to lie at a similar distance, perhaps 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, this 2-degree wide field of view would span about 60 light-years. Young stars do lie hidden within the dark expanse and have been revealed in Spitzer Space Telescope infrared images.

Tomorrow’s picture: wild and crazy

LDN 1622: 恶灵星云
图像提供与版权: Joshua Carter

说明: 有些人或许会认为这团黝黑的天体，形似传说中的恶灵。但在科学上来说，以散发淡淡辉光的氢气为衬托的林茨暗星云1622（LDN 1622），只有在此区的长曝光望远镜图像里才得以现踪。相较之下，位在这幅主题图像中右上方的反射星云vdB 62，较明亮也较容易分辨。LDN 1622位我们银河系的盘面附近，在天空中的位置，离环拱猎户腰带、配剑及其上的大片发射星云复合体的巴纳德环不远。带着后掠轮廓的LDN 1622之黝黑尘埃，距离咸认与猎户座著名的星云相近，离我们或许只有1,500光年远。以这个距离来换算，这片2度宽的视野，对应的宽度大约为60光年。此外，斯皮策太空望远镜的红外光图像，发现这大片暗星云内藏着刚诞生的年轻恒星。（Boogeyman Nebula恶灵星云）

明日的图片: wild and crazy