船底座星云

2024年4月19日

The Great Carina Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Demison Lopes

Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula is more modestly known as NGC 3372. One of our Galaxy’s largest star forming regions, it spans over 300 light-years. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye. But at a distance of 7,500 light-years it lies some 5 times farther away. This stunning telescopic view reveals remarkable details of the region’s glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the bright star above the central dark notch in this field and left of the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).

Tomorrow’s picture: diamond in the sky

船底座星云
影像提供与版权: Demison Lopes

说明: 身为南天星空珍宝之一的船底座星云，有个较平凡无奇的NGC 3372之编录号。跨幅超过300光年的它，是我们银河系最大的恒星形成区之一。就像较小、位于北天的猎户座大星云一样，船底座星云也是肉眼轻易可见的天体。不过船底座星云离地球有7,500光年远，其距离是猎户座大星云的5倍之多。这幅令人赞叹的望远镜影像，无比细致的呈现了此区明亮丝缕状星际气体和不透光宇宙尘埃云之结构。船底座星云是极大质量年轻恒星的家园，其中包括目前依旧神秘难解、质量超过100倍太阳的变星海山二。在这片视野里，海山二是中央黝黑缺口上方及满是尘埃的锁孔星云（NGC 3324）左侧之亮星。 （Eta Carinae 海山二）

明日的图片: diamond in the sky