螺旋星系NGC 6744

2024年11月1日

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
Image Credit & Copyright: John Hayes

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way. It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo but appears as only a faint smudge in the eyepiece of a small telescope. We see the disk of the nearby island universe tilted towards our line of sight in this remarkably deep and detailed galaxy portrait, a telescopic image that spans an area about the angular size of a full moon. In it, the giant galaxy’s elongated yellowish core is dominated by the light from old, cool stars. Beyond the core, grand spiral arms are filled with young blue star clusters and speckled with pinkish star forming regions. An extended arm sweeps past smaller satellite galaxy NGC 6744A at the upper left. NGC 6744’s galactic companion is reminiscent of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Tomorrow’s picture: light-weekend

螺旋星系NGC 6744
影像提供与版权: John Hayes

说明: 美丽的螺旋星系NGC 6744，宽度将近有175,000光年，比我们的银河系大。然而在小望远镜里，这个位于南天孔雀座方向约3千万光年远处的庞大星系，只是一个暗淡弥漫的天体。在这幅涵盖了约一个满月宽度天空，极为细致的深空望远镜星系影像里，沿我们的视线方向看出去，这个邻近宇宙岛的盘面几乎是正向着我们。影像中，这个星系庞大泛黄的长棒形核心，散发着大量年老低温恒星所发出的星光。在星系核外头的宏伟螺旋臂上，则散布着年轻的蓝色星团和粉红的恒星形成区。在影像的右下角，它的一道颀长螺旋臂，扫过一个较小伴星系NGC 6744A的前方。NGC 6744的这个星系伙伴，其外观酷似银河系的伴星系─大麦哲伦星系。

明日的图片: light-weekend