哈勃对狼蛛星云的新观察
A snapshot of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is featured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Tarantula Nebula is a large star-forming region of ionized hydrogen gas that lies 161,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and its turbulent clouds of gas and dust appear to swirl between the region’s bright, newly formed stars.
The Tarantula Nebula is a familiar site for Hubble. It is the brightest star-forming region in our galactic neighborhood and home to the hottest, most massive stars known. This makes it a perfect natural laboratory in which to test out theories of star formation and evolution, and Hubble has a rich variety of images of this region. The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope also recently delved into this region, revealing thousands of never-before-seen young stars.
This new image combines data from two different observing proposals. The first was designed to explore the properties of the dust grains that exist in the void between stars that make up the dark clouds winding through this image. This proposal, which astronomers named Scylla, reveals how interstellar dust interacts with starlight in a variety of environments. It complements another Hubble program called Ulysses, which characterizes the stars. This image also incorporates data from an observing program studying star formation in conditions similar to the early universe, as well as cataloging the stars of the Tarantula Nebula for future science with Webb.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, E. Sabbi; Acknowledgment: Y. -H. Chu
这张来自NASA/ESA哈勃太空望远镜的照片中展示了蜘蛛星云（也称为剑鱼座30）的快照。狼蛛星云是离地球161,000光年的大麦哲伦星云中电离氢气体形成的大恒星区域，在该区域明亮的新形成的恒星之间，可以看到它由气体和尘埃组成的湍流云团。
蜘蛛星云是哈勃望远镜熟悉的地方。它是我们银河系附近最明亮的恒星形成区，也是已知最热、质量最大的恒星的所在地。这使得它成为一个完美的自然实验室，可以用来测试恒星形成和演化的理论，而哈勃望远镜有着这一区域丰富的图像。NASA/ESA/CSA詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜最近也对这一区域进行了研究，发现了数千颗从未见过的年轻恒星。
这张新图像结合了来自两个不同观测方案的数据。第一个观测方案是为了探索存在于恒星之间的太空中的尘埃颗粒的性质，这些尘埃颗粒组成了在这幅图像中蜿蜒的乌云。这个被天文学家命名为“锡拉”的区域，揭示了星际尘埃如何在各种环境下与星光相互作用。它补充了哈勃另一个名为尤利西斯的项目，该项目描述了恒星的特征。这张照片还包含了一个观测项目的数据，该项目研究了与早期宇宙类似的条件下的恒星形成，并与韦伯一起对蜘蛛星云的恒星进行了编目，以供未来科学研究。
文字来源：European Space Agency (ESA)
影像来源：ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, E. Sabbi; 致谢：Y. -H. Chu