NGC 6727: 狒狒星云

2024年9月24日

NGC 6727: The Rampaging Baboon Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Alpha Zhang & Ting Yu

Explanation: This dusty region is forming stars. Part of a sprawling molecular cloud complex that resembles, to some, a rampaging baboon, the region is a relatively close by 500 light-years away toward the constellation Corona Australis. That’s about one third the distance of the more famous stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. Mixed with bright nebulosities, the brown dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way and obscure from view embedded stars still in the process of formation. The eyes of the dust creature in the featured image are actually blue reflection nebulas cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, and IC 4812, while the red mouth glows with light emitted by hydrogen gas. Just to the upper left of the baboon’s head is NGC 6723, a whole globular cluster of stars nearly 30,000 light years in the distance.

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NGC 6727: 狒狒星云
影像提供与版权: Alpha Zhang & Ting Yu

说明: 这片尘埃正在形成恒星。这团距离南冕座约只有500光年、形似狂怒狒狒的尘埃，是一个庞大分子云复合体的一部分。此区域与我们的距离，则约为猎户大星云这个著名的恒星育婴室的三分之一。与明亮星云混杂在一起的棕色尘埃云，会阻挡银河系更远处恒星的星光，并遮掩了那些仍在形成中的内嵌恒星。主题影像里的这头“尘埃生物”的眼睛，其实是编号为NGC 6726、6727、6729和IC 4812的蓝色反射星云，而红色的嘴部，则是氢气所发出的辉光。在狒狒头部的左上方，还可见到距离将近3万光年的球状星团 NGC 6723。