哈勃发现的孵化中的暗星frEGGs

This image shows knots of cold, dense interstellar gas where new stars are forming. These Free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globules (frEGGs) were first seen in Hubble’s famous 1995 image of the Eagle Nebula. Because these lumps of gas are dark, they are rarely seen by telescopes. They can be observed when the newly forming stars ignite, their intense ultraviolet radiation eroding the surrounding gas away and letting the denser, more resistant frEGGs remain. The frEGGs seen in this image are located in the Northern Coalsack Nebula in the direction of Cygnus, the Swan.

这张图片显示了新的恒星正在形成的冷而密集的星际气体结。这些自由漂浮的蒸发气态小球（frEGG）首次出现在哈勃1995年著名的鹰状星云的图像中。因为这些气团是黑暗的，所以它们很少被望远镜看到。当新形成的恒星点燃时，它们可以被观察到，它们强烈的紫外线辐射会侵蚀周围的气体，让密度更大、抵抗力更强的frEGG保留下来。在这张图片中看到的frEGG位于天鹅座方向的北部煤袋星云中。

This Hubble image also features two giant stars. The left star is a rare, giant O-type star, which are very bright, blue-white stars known to be the hottest in the universe. These massive stars are 10,000 to a million times the brightness of the Sun and burn themselves out quickly, in a few million years. The right star is an even more massive supergiant B-type star. Supergiant stars also burn through their fuel quickly, anywhere between a few hundred thousand years to tens of millions of years, and die in titanic supernova explosions.

这张哈勃拍摄的照片上还有两颗巨星。左边的恒星是一颗罕见的巨型O型恒星，它是非常明亮的蓝白色恒星，是已知宇宙中最热的恒星。这些巨大的恒星的亮度是太阳的一万到一百万倍，它们会在几百万年内迅速燃烧殆尽。右边的恒星是一颗质量更大的超巨星B型恒星。超巨星也会在几十万年到数千万年之间快速燃烧燃料，并在巨大的超新星爆炸中消亡。

Main Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Sahai (Jet Propulsion Laboratory); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

主要图片来源：NASA, ESA, and R. Sahai (Jet Propulsion Laboratory); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)