哈勃望远镜发现嵌入银河系内部的闪光球状星团

哈勃望远镜发现嵌入银河系内部的闪光球状星团

ByNASA中文

This colorful image of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 is a spectacular example of how dust in space affects starlight coming from background objects. A globular star cluster is a conglomeration of stars, arranged in a spheroidal shape. Stars in globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards the center. The Milky Way has about 150 ancient globular clusters at its outskirts. These clusters orbit around the galactic center, but far above and below the pancake-flat plane of our galaxy, like bees buzzing around a hive. The location of this globular cluster, deep in the Milky Way in the constellation Sagittarius, means that it is shrouded in gas and dust which absorb and alter the starlight emanating from…

大麦哲伦星系

大麦哲伦星系

ByNASA中文

2023年9月7日 The Large Cloud of Magellan Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Willocks 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 is seen in this sharp galaxy portrait. 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…

OSIRIS-REx样品返回演练

OSIRIS-REx样品返回演练

ByNASA中文

A recovery team member takes part in field rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in this image from Aug. 29, 2023. The sample of rocks and dust, which the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected from the asteroid Bennu in Oct. 2020, will return to Earth on Sept. 24, safely landing at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample will give generations of scientists a window into the time when the Sun and planets were forming about 4.5 billion years ago. Get a preview of what the asteroid sample recovery will look like and join us on Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. EDT for live coverage. Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber 图为2023年8月29日，一名回收团队成员参加现场演练，为从NASA的OSIRIS-REx任务中回收样本回收舱做准备。OSIRIS-REx航天器于2020年10月从小行星贝努收集的岩石和尘埃样本将于9月24日返回地球，安全降落在国防部的犹他测试和训练靶场。该样本将为未来的科学家提供一个窗口，让他们了解大约45亿年前太阳和行星形成的时间。 预览小行星样本回收的情况，并于美国东部时间9月24日上午10点加入我们的现场报道。 影像来源：NASA/Keegan Barber

黑斯望远镜探索高能波段的天空

黑斯望远镜探索高能波段的天空

ByNASA中文

2023年9月6日 HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky Credit & Copyright: Video Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN), H.E.S.S. Collaboration; Music: Ibaotu catalog number 1044988 (Used with permission) Explanation: They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs, but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of four 12-meter reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope housing a 28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue light — Cherenkov radiation –emitted when charged particles move slightly faster than the speed of light in air. This light is emitted when a gamma ray from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth’s atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower. H.E.S.S. is sensitive to some of the highest…

This photograph from Sept. 5, 1977, shows the launch of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

旅行者1号升空，迈向星际之旅

ByNASA中文

On Sept. 5, 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft lifts off atop its Titan/Centaur-6 launch vehicle from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were originally launched to conduct closeup studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn’s rings, and the larger moons of the two planets. After completing these missions and more, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space and is now the farthest human-made object from Earth. Scientists think it will reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud in 300 years. Follow along with Voyager’s live mission status. 1977年9月5日，NASA的旅行者1号宇宙飞船在位于佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角空军基地（现在的卡纳维拉尔角太空基地）的41号发射场搭载泰坦/半人马-6运载火箭升空。 旅行者1号和它的孪生兄弟旅行者2号最初是为了对木星和土星、土星环以及这两颗行星中较大的卫星进行近距离研究。在完成这些任务和更多任务后，旅行者1号成为第一艘到达星际空间的航天器，现在是距离地球最远的人造物体。科学家们认为它将在300年后到达奥尔特云的内缘。 继续关注旅行者的实时任务状态。

锡拉库萨后方的超级蓝月

锡拉库萨后方的超级蓝月

ByNASA中文

2023年9月5日 Blue Supermoon Beyond Syracuse Credit & Copyright: Kevin Saragozza Explanation: The last full moon was doubly unusual. First of all, it was a blue moon. A modern definition of a blue moon is a second full moon to occur during one calendar month. Since there are 13 full moons in 2023, one month has to have two — and that month was August. The first full moon was on August 1 and named a Sturgeon Moon. The second reason that the last full moon was unusual was because it was a supermoon. A modern definition of supermoon is a moon that reaches its full phase when it is relatively close to Earth — and so appears a bit larger and brighter than average. Pictured,…

天鹅座的皂泡与眉月星云

天鹅座的皂泡与眉月星云

ByNASA中文

2023年9月4日 Cygnus: Bubble and Crescent Credit & Copyright: Abdullah Al-Harbi Explanation: As stars die, they create clouds. Two stellar death clouds of gas and dust can be found toward the high-flying constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) as they drift through rich star fields in the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Caught here within the telescopic field of view are the Soap Bubble (lower left) and the Crescent Nebula (upper right). Both were formed at the final phase in the life of a star. Also known as NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula was shaped as its bright, central massive Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136, shed its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind. Burning through fuel at a prodigious rate, WR 136 is near the end…

史瓦3号彗星碎裂

史瓦3号彗星碎裂

ByNASA中文

2023年9月3日 Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Fragments Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU / APL), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI) Explanation: Periodic comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has broken up at least twice. A cosmic souffle of ice and dust left over from the early solar system, this comet was first seen to split into several large pieces during the close-in part of its orbit in 1995. However, in the 2006 passage, it disintegrated into dozens of fragments that stretched several degrees across the sky. Since comets are relatively fragile, stresses from heat, gravity and outgassing, for example, could be responsible for their tendency to break up in such a spectacular fashion when they near the hot Sun. The Hubble Space Telescope recorded, in 2006, the featured sharp…

NGC 7023：鸢尾花星云

NGC 7023：鸢尾花星云

ByNASA中文

2023年9月2日 NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes Explanation: These cosmic clouds have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile starfields of the constellation Cepheus. Called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula to evoke the imagery of flowers. Still, this deep telescopic image shows off the Iris Nebula’s range of colors and symmetries embedded in surrounding fields of interstellar dust. Within the Iris itself, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the reflection nebula glow with a faint reddish photoluminescence as some dust grains effectively convert the star’s invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations…