小精灵星云的恒星形成活动

2023年8月28日

Star Formation in the Pacman Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Craig Stocks

Explanation: Look through the cosmic cloud cataloged as NGC 281 and you might miss the stars of open cluster IC 1590. Formed within the nebula, that cluster’s young, massive stars ultimately power the pervasive nebular glow. The eye-catching shapes looming in the featured portrait of NGC 281 are sculpted dusty columns and dense Bok globules seen in silhouette, eroded by intense, energetic winds and radiation from the hot cluster stars. If they survive long enough, the dusty structures could also be sites of future star formation. Playfully called the Pacman Nebula because of its overall shape, NGC 281 is about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp composite image was made through narrow-band filters. It combines emission from the nebula’s hydrogen and oxygen atoms to synthesize red, green, and blue colors. The scene spans well over 80 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 281.

Tomorrow’s picture: spiral webb

小精灵星云的恒星形成活动
影像提供与版权: Craig Stocks

说明: 在透视星云NGC 281之时，你可能会漏看疏散星团IC 1590的成员星。然而，诞生于此星云内的这群大质量年轻亮星，却是激发星云发出辉光的终极能源。这幅星云NGC 281影像里的吸睛结构，是被星团炽热恒星的强烈高能恒星风和辐射，所雕塑和侵蚀出的云气柱和致密尘埃包克云球之剪影。如果这些尘埃结构存在得够久，它们可能会成为未来恒星诞生之所在。NGC 281位在仙后座内，离我们大约10,000光年远，因其外观也常被戏称为小精灵星云。这幅清晰的组合影像，是由数张窄波段照片组合而成，其中，星云的氢和氧原子辐射，分别以红、绿和蓝来呈现。以星云NGC 281的距离来估算，这幅影像涵盖了超过80光年的区域。 （Pacman Nebula 小精灵星云）

明日的图片: spiral webb