蛋星云的偏振光影像

蛋星云的偏振光影像

ByNASA中文

2023年4月9日 The Egg Nebula in Polarized Light Image Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), W. Sparks (STScI) & R. Sahai (JPL), NASA Explanation: Where is the center of the Egg Nebula? Emerging from a cosmic egg, the star in the center of the Egg Nebula is casting away shells of gas and dust as it slowly transforms itself into a white dwarf star. The Egg Nebula is a rapidly evolving pre- planetary nebula spanning about one light year. It lies some 3,000 light-years away toward the northern constellation Cygnus. Thick dust blocks the center star from view, while the dust shells farther out reflect light from this star. Light vibrating in the plane defined by each dust grain, the central star, and the observer…

M87中心黑洞的极化光影像

M87中心黑洞的极化光影像

ByNASA中文

2021年03月31日 M87’s Central Black Hole in Polarized Light Image Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration; Text: Jayanne English (U. Manitoba) Explanation: To play on Carl Sagan’s famous words “If you wish to make black hole jets, you must first create magnetic fields.” The featured image represents the detected intrinsic spin direction (polarization) of radio waves. The polarizationi is produced by the powerful magnetic field surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of elliptical galaxy M87. The radio waves were detected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which combines data from radio telescopes distributed worldwide. The polarization structure, mapped using computer generated flow lines, is overlaid on EHT’s famous black hole image, first published in 2019. The full 3-D magnetic field is complex. Preliminary analyses indicate…