大麦哲伦星系

2019 September 5

The Large Cloud of Magellan
Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

Explanation: The 16th century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth. As a result, two fuzzy cloud-like objects easily visible to southern hemisphere skygazers are known as the Clouds of Magellan, now understood to be satellite galaxies of our much larger, spiral Milky Way galaxy. About 160,000 light-years distant in the constellation Dorado, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is seen here in a remarkably deep, colorful, image. Spanning about 15,000 light-years or so, it is the most massive of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies and is the home of the closest supernova in modern times, SN 1987A. The prominent patch below center is 30 Doradus, also known as the magnificent Tarantula Nebula, a giant star-forming region about 1,000 light-years across.

大麦哲伦星系
影像来源与版权: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

说明：16世纪的葡萄牙航海家斐迪南.麦哲伦和他的船员在第一次环球航行时，有大量的时间来研究南方的天空。因此，南半球的天文观测者很容易看到两个云雾状的模糊天体，它们被称为麦哲伦星系，现在它们被认为是更庞大的旋涡状银河系的伴星系。大麦哲伦星系（LMC）位于剑鱼座内，距离我们约16万光年远，在这幅引人注目的深空彩色影像中可见。这个跨度约15,000光年的星系是银河系最大的伴星系，也是近代发现的距离我们最近的超新星SN 1987A的家园。影像中心下方的显著光斑是剑鱼座30，也被称为壮丽的蜘蛛星云，它是一个跨度约1千光年的巨大恒星形成区。