哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的M96

2019 June 12

哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的M96
图片来源：NASA, ESA, Hubble
图片处理和版权：Leo Shatz

说明：在这幅呈现美丽岛宇宙中央的彩色细致影像中，尘埃带似乎环绕着M96的核心旋转。当然，M96是一个旋涡星系，算上延伸到较明亮中央区域之外的模糊旋臂，它的跨度约为10万光年，相当于我们银河系的大小。M96也被称为NGC 3368，距离我们约3500万光年远，是狮子座I星系群的主要成员。这幅特征影像是由哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的。M96的不对称性原因尚不清楚，它可能是由与其他狮子座I星系群的引力相互作用引起的，但缺少星系之间的漫射辉光，这似乎表明近来没有发生相互作用。仔细观察这幅影像的边缘，你就能发现背景中的遥远星系。

Spiral Galaxy M96 from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Leo Shatz

Explanation: Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this colorful, detailed portrait of the center of a beautiful island universe. Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending beyond the brighter central region, it spans 100 thousand light-years or so, making it about the size of our own Milky Way. M96, also known as NGC 3368, is known to be about 35 million light-years distant and a dominant member of the Leo I galaxy group. The featured image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The reason for M96’s asymmetry is unclear — it could have arisen from gravitational interactions with other Leo I group galaxies, but the lack of an intra-group diffuse glow seems to indicate few recent interactions. Galaxies far in the background can be found by examining the edges of the picture.