M100: 宏伟的螺旋星系

2023年4月8日

M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a grand design spiral galaxy. It is a large galaxy of over 100 billion stars with well-defined spiral arms that is similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, M100 (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant toward the constellation of Berenice’s Hair (Coma Berenices). This Hubble Space Telescope image of M100 was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 and accentuates bright blue star clusters and intricate winding dust lanes which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies. Studies of variable stars in M100 have played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe.

Tomorrow’s picture: big egg

M100: 宏伟的螺旋星系
影像提供: NASA, ESA, Hubble; 影像处理: Judy Schmidt

说明: 庞大美丽的M100有宏伟螺旋星系的贴切称号。这个庞然的星系，拥有超过1千亿颗成员星；此外，它也酷似我们的银河系，拥有轮廓鲜明的螺旋臂。亦名为NGC 4321的M100，位在后发座方向，离我们约有5千6百万光年远，是室女座星系团最明亮的星系成员之一。这幅由哈勃太空望远镜第三代广视场相机所拍摄的M100影像，突显了明亮蓝色星团和错综复杂的蜿蜒尘埃带，这些螺旋星系的标志性特征。研究星系M100里的变星，对测定宇宙的大小和年龄有重要贡献。

明日的图片: big egg