猎户座的幼星

Scores of baby stars shrouded by dust are revealed in this infrared image of the star-forming region NGC 2174, as seen by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Some of the clouds in the region resemble the face of a monkey in visible-light images, hence the nebula’s nickname: the “Monkey Head.” However, in infrared images such as this, the monkey disappears. That’s because different clouds are highlighted in infrared and visible-light images.

这张由NASA斯皮策太空望远镜拍摄的恒星形成区域NGC 2174的红外图像显示了被尘埃笼罩的数十颗新生恒星。该区域的一些云在可见光图像中类似猴子的脸，因此星云的绰号为“猴头”。然而，在这样的红外图像中，猴子消失了。这是因为不同的云在红外线和可见光图像中被突出显示。

Found in the northern reaches of the constellation Orion, NGC 2174 is located around 6,400 light-years away. Columns of dust, slightly to the right of center in the image, are being carved out of the dust by radiation and stellar winds from the hottest young stars recently born in the area.

NGC 2174位于猎户座的北部，距离我们约6400光年。图中稍偏右的尘埃柱，是由最近在该区域诞生的最热的年轻恒星的辐射和恒星风从尘埃中雕刻出来。

Spitzer’s infrared view provides us with a preview of the next clusters of stars that will be born in the coming millennia. The reddish spots of light scattered through the darker filaments are infant stars swaddled by blankets of warm dust. The warm dust glows brightly at infrared wavelengths. Eventually, these stars will pop out of their dusty envelopes and their light will carve away at the dust clouds surrounding them.

斯皮策的红外线观测为我们提供了下一个星团的预览，这些星团将在未来千年中诞生。透过较暗的细丝散布的红色光点，是被温暖的尘埃毯子包裹着的婴儿恒星。温暖的尘埃在红外波段发出明亮的光芒。最终，这些恒星会从尘埃包层中迸发，它们发出的光会侵蚀周围的尘埃云。

In this image first published in 2015, infrared wavelengths have been assigned visible colors we see with our eyes. Light with a wavelength of 3.5 microns is shown in blue, 8.0 microns is green, and 24 microns in red. The greens show the organic molecules in the dust clouds, illuminated by starlight. Reds are caused by the thermal radiation emitted from the very hottest areas of dust.

在这张于2015年首次发布的图像中，红外波长被赋予了我们用肉眼看到的可见颜色。波长为3.5微米的光以蓝色显示，8.0微米为绿色，24微米为红色。绿色代表尘埃云中被星光照亮的有机分子。红色是由最热的尘埃区域发出的热辐射造成的。

Areas around the edges that were not observed by Spitzer have been filled in using infrared observations from NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE.

斯皮策望远镜没有观测到的边缘区域已经被美国宇航局的广域红外勘测探测器（WISE）的红外观测填充。

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

影像来源：NASA/JPL-Caltech