猎户座大星云与跑步者星云

2023年3月10日

Orion and the Running Man
Image Credit & Copyright: Abraham Jones

Explanation: Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like The Great Nebula in Orion. Visible as a faint celestial smudge to the naked-eye, the nearest large star-forming region sprawls across this sharp telescopic image, recorded on a cold January night in dark skies from West Virginia, planet Earth. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula’s glowing gas surrounds hot, young stars. About 40 light-years across, it lies at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away within the same spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy as the Sun. Along with dusty bluish reflection nebula NGC 1977 and friends near the top of the frame, the eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of our galactic neighborhood’s wealth of star-forming material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems.

Tomorrow’s picture: 3D Bennu

猎户座大星云与跑步者星云
图像提供与版权: Abraham Jones

说明: 鲜少有宇宙景观像猎户座大星云这么善于激发想像力。而肉眼中通常看似暗淡夜空光斑的此星云，于今年1月寒夜、摄于西弗吉尼亚州幽暗天空下的这幅清晰的望远镜图像里，这个最邻近的大恒星形成区横跨了整个视野。在图像里，亦称为M42的猎户座大星云之明亮云气，环拱在炽热年轻恒星的周围。位在一个庞大星际分子云边缘的猎户座大星云，直径约为40光年，距离我们仅有1,500光年远，与太阳位在银河系的同一条旋臂上。这些吸睛星云——包括泛蓝尘埃反射星云NGC1977及其他位在图像顶部的星云，只占我们附近的银河系天区里，大量的恒星形成物质之一小部分。在猎户座大星云这个备受探索的恒星育婴室里，天文学家发现了非常多的婴儿期太阳系。

明日的图片: 3D Bennu