2025年3月12日
NGC 772: The Fiddlehead Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: JJean-François Bax & Serge Brunier, OCA/C2PU; Text:
Explanation: Why does this galaxy look like a curly vegetable? The Fiddlehead spiral galaxy likely gets its distorted spiral appearance from a gravitational interaction with its close-by elliptical companion NGC 770, seen just below. Cataloged as NGC 772 and Arp 78, the Fiddlehead spans over 200,000 light years, is a nearby 100 million light years beyond the stars of our Milky Way galaxy, and is visible toward the constellation of the Ram (Aries). But in the featured image, the Fiddlehead appears to have another companion — one with a long and fuzzy tail: Comet 43P/Wolf-Harrington. Though the comet appears to be aimed straight at the massive galaxy, it is actually much closer to us, residing only light minutes away — well within our Solar System. The comet will never reach the distant spiral galaxy, nor is it physically related to it. By a fortunate trick of perspective, though, these two cosmic wonders briefly share the same frame taken late last year from Calern, France.
Tomorrow’s picture: open space
NGC 772: 蕨菜星系
影像提供与版权: Jean-François Bax; 文稿: Ogetay Kayali (Michigan Tech U.)
说明: 为何这个星系看起来像卷曲的蔬菜？螺旋状蕨菜星系的扭曲外观，可能源自它与下方的邻近椭圆星系NGC 770之间的重力互扰。位于白羊座方向、编录号为NGC 772和Arp 78的蕨菜星系，直径超过20万光年，座落在银河繁星的后方约1亿光年远之处。不过，在这幅主题影像里，蕨菜星系看似还有另一个曳着弥漫长尾的伴侣–沃夫-哈灵顿彗星。虽然于视觉上，这颗彗星似乎直冲着这个庞大的螺旋星系而去，但其实它距离我们只有数光分，近在太阳系之内。因此，沃夫-哈灵顿彗星永远撞不到这个遥远的螺旋星系，而二者也毫无物理连结。在这幅去年（2024年）底摄于法国 卡勒恩山区的影像，这二个天体只是凑巧出现在同一片视野里。（fiddleheads, fiddlehead greens 蕨菜; Comet 43P/Wolf-Harrington 沃夫-哈灵顿彗星）
明日的图片: open space
