M83：千红宝石星系

2019 June 29

M83：千红宝石星系
影像提供: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope,
European Southern Observatory – 图像处理与版权: Robert Gendler

说明: 庞大、明亮而且美丽的螺旋星系M83，位在长蛇座的最南端，离我们只有1千2百万光年远。 因为拥有镶嵌着黝黑尘埃带和蓝色星团的壮丽螺旋臂，此星系有南风车星系的令名。此外，就如在上面这幅耀眼的彩色组合影像所示，散布在巨大螺旋臂上的红色恒星形成区，也让它博得千红宝石星系的称号。宽约40,000光年的M83，是它所在星系团的大型成员之一，其他的成员还包括活跃星系半人马座A。 M83的核心在X射线波段非常明亮，并且拥有恒星形成爆留下来的大量中子星和黑洞。这幅清晰的组合彩色影像，还记录了带星芒的前景银河系恒星与遥远的背景星系。 组成这幅影像的数据，来自斯巴鲁望远镜、欧洲南方天文台的广角相机、与哈伯望远镜资料库。

M83: The Thousand-Ruby Galaxx
Image Credit: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope,
European Southern Observatory – Processing & Copyright: Robert Gendler

Explanation: Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, The Southern Pinwheel. But reddish star forming regions that dot the sweeping arms highlighted in this sparkling color composite also suggest another nickname, The Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. About 40,000 light-years across, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy Centaurus A. In fact, the core of M83 itself is bright at x-ray energies, showing a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from an intense burst of star formation. This sharp composite color image also features spiky foreground Milky Way stars and distant background galaxies. The image data was taken from the Subaru Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Wide Field Imager camera, and the Hubble Legacy Archive.