M16特写

2019 August 10

M16 Close Up
Image Credit & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo

Explanation: A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the region adopts the colorful Hubble palette and includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission left of center is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 lies about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).

M16特写
影像提供与版权: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo

说明: 包裹在尘埃与辉光云气胎衣云内的M16，又名为鹰状星云，是个年龄约2百万年的年轻星团。这幅采用哈伯色表的美丽细致影像，呈现因哈伯太空望远镜为这个恒星形成星云复合体，拍下一系列特写影像，而声名大噪的一些精采宇宙雕塑。位在影像中心长达数光年的尘埃云柱，名为象鼻或创生之柱，在重力挤压下不断形成恒星。此外，来自星团成员星的高能辐射，侵蚀了云柱顶端的物质，让内藏的新生恒星曝露出来。而从影像中左方的明亮云气脊伸出的一根恒星诞生尘埃柱，则拥有老鹰星云仙女之令名。位在长蛇座星云群集尾部区的M16，距离我们约7,000光年远，是用双筒或小望远镜即轻易可见的天体。