天市右垣十一: 速逃星

天市右垣十一: 速逃星

BySamuel Chan

2024年1月4日 Zeta Oph: Runaway Star Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Spitzer Space Telescope Explanation: Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait. In the false-color view, bluish Zeta Oph, a star about 20 times more massive than the Sun, lies near the center of the frame, moving toward the left at 24 kilometers per second. Its strong stellar wind precedes it, compressing and heating the dusty interstellar material and shaping the curved shock front. What set this star in motion? Zeta Oph was likely once a member of a binary star system, its companion star was more massive and hence shorter lived. When the companion exploded as a…

韦伯望远镜的心宿增四星云

韦伯望远镜的心宿增四星云

ByNASA中文

2023年7月13日 Webb’s Rho Ophiuchi Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI), Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) Explanation: A mere 390 light-years away, Sun-like stars and future planetary systems are forming in the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to our fair planet. The James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam peered into the nearby natal chaos to capture this infrared image at an inspiring scale. The spectacular cosmic snapshot was released to celebrate the successful first year of Webb’s exploration of the Universe. The frame spans less than a light-year across the Rho Ophiuchi region and contains about 50 young stars. Brighter stars clearly sport Webb’s characteristic pattern of diffraction spikes. Huge jets of shocked molecular hydrogen blasting from newborn stars are red…

透视土卫六

透视土卫六

ByNASA中文

2023年3月31日 Seeing Titan Image Credit: VIMS Team, U. Arizona, U. Nantes, ESA, NASA Explanation: Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, Saturn’s largest moon Titan really is hard to see. Small particles suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding Titan’s surface features from prying eyes. But Titan’s surface is better imaged at infrared wavelengths where scattering is weaker and atmospheric absorption is reduced. Arrayed around this visible light image (center) of Titan are some of the clearest global infrared views of the tantalizing moon so far. In false color, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft…

IIZw096: 合并中的星系对

IIZw096: 合并中的星系对

ByNASA中文

2022年12月2日 Merging Galaxy Pair IIZw096 Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans Explanation: Bright at infrared wavelengths, this merging galaxy pair is some 500 million light-years away toward the constellation Delphinus. The cosmic mashup is seen against a background of even more distant galaxies, and occasional spiky foreground stars. But the galaxy merger itself spans about 100,000 light-years in this deep James Webb Space Telescope image. The image data is from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). Their combined, sharp infrared view follows galactic scale restructuring in the dusty merger’s wild jumble of intense star forming regions and distorted spiral arms Tomorrow’s picture: Stereo Saturday IIZw096: 合并中的星系对 图像提供: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans 说明: 这对在海豚座方向约5亿光年远处的合并中星系，是红外光波段很明亮的天体。这个“宇宙混搭”景观，以更遥远的背景星系为衬托，偶而也有带芒的前景恒星来凑热闹。这幅韦伯太空望远镜深空图像所呈现的合并星系对，其跨幅约为100,000光年。组成这幅图像的数据来自韦伯的近红外相机（NIRCam）及中红外成像分光仪（MIRI）。这幅韦伯的整合红外光图像，清晰的呈现这个尘土飞扬的星系级重组事件，及其所造就的狂暴恒星形成区及扭曲螺旋臂。 明日的图片: Stereo…

L1527的原恒星

L1527的原恒星

ByNASA中文

2022年11月18日 The Protostar within L1527 Image Credit: Science – NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam Processing – Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI) Explanation: The protostar within dark cloud L1527 is a mere 100,000 years old, still embedded in the cloud of gas and dust that feeds its growth. In this NIRCam image from the James Webb Space Telescope, the dark band at the neck of the infrared nebula is a thick disk that surrounds the young stellar object. Viewed nearly edge-on and a little larger than our Solar System, the disk ultimately supplies material to the protostar while hiding it from Webb’s direct infrared view. The nebula itself is seen in stunning detail though. Illuminated by infrared light from the protostar,…

卡西尼号的红外光土星

卡西尼号的红外光土星

ByNASA中文

2022年7月24日 Saturn in Infrared from Cassini Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SSI; Processing: Maksim Kakitsev Explanation: Many details of Saturn appear clearly in infrared light. Bands of clouds show great structure, including long stretching storms. Also quite striking in infrared is the unusual hexagonal cloud pattern surrounding Saturn’s North Pole. Each side of the dark hexagon spans roughly the width of our Earth. The hexagon’s existence was not predicted, and its origin and likely stability remains a topic of research. Saturn’s famous rings circle the planet and cast shadows below the equator. The featured image was taken by the robotic Cassini spacecraft in 2014 in several infrared colors. In 2017 September, the Cassini mission was brought to a dramatic conclusion when the spacecraft was directed to…

仙女座星系过去与未来的恒星

仙女座星系过去与未来的恒星

ByNASA中文

2022年5月23日 The Once and Future Stars of Andromeda Image Credit: NASA, NSF, NOAJ, Hubble, Subaru, Mayall, DSS, Spitzer; Processing & Copyright: Robert Gendler & Russell Croman Explanation: This picture of Andromeda shows not only where stars are now, but where stars will soon be. Of course, the big, beautiful Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is a spiral galaxy — and a mere 2.5 million light-years away. Both space-based and ground-based observatories have been here combined to produce this intriguing composite image of Andromeda, at wavelengths both inside and outside normally visible light. The visible light shows where M31’s stars are now — as highlighted in white and blue hues and imaged by the Hubble, Subaru, and Mayall telescopes. The infrared light shows where M31’s future stars will…

年轻恒星MHO 2147的喷流

年轻恒星MHO 2147的喷流

ByNASA中文

2022年1月21日 Young Star Jet MHO 2147 Image Credit & License: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA Acknowledgments: L. Ferrero (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba) Explanation: Laser guide stars and adaptive optics sharpened this stunning ground-based image of stellar jets from the Gemini South Observatory, Chilean Andes, planet Earth. These twin outflows of MHO 2147 are from a young star in formation. It lies toward the central Milky Way and the boundary of the constellations Sagittarius and Ophiuchus at an estimated distance of some 10,000 light-years. At center, the star itself is obscured by a dense region of cold dust. But the infrared image still traces the sinuous jets across a frame that would span about 5 light-years at the system’s estimated distance. Driven…

NGC 281：移除恒星后再叠合恒星

NGC 281：移除恒星后再叠合恒星

ByNASA中文

2021年11月19日 NGC 281: Starless with Stars Image Credit & Copyright: Wido Oerlemans – X-ray: Chandra, Infrared: Spitzer Explanation: In visible light the stars have been removed from this narrow-band image of NGC 281, a star forming region some 10,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Stars were digitally added back to the resulting starless image though. But instead of using visible light image data, the stars were added with X-ray data (in purple) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared data (in red) from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The merged multiwavelength view reveals a multitude of stars in the region’s embedded star cluster IC 1590. The young stars are normally hidden in visible light images by the natal cloud’s gas and obscuring dust. Also known…

红外光波段的银河中心

红外光波段的银河中心

ByNASA中文

2021年04月19日 The Galactic Center in Infrared Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Spitzer Space Telescope, Susan Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) et al.; Reprocessing: Judy Schmidt Explanation: What does the center of our galaxy look like? In visible light, the Milky Way’s center is hidden by clouds of obscuring dust and gas. But in this stunning vista, the Spitzer Space Telescope’s infrared cameras, penetrate much of the dust revealing the stars of the crowded galactic center region. A mosaic of many smaller snapshots, the detailed, false-color image shows older, cool stars in bluish hues. Red and brown glowing dust clouds are associated with young, hot stars in stellar nurseries. The very center of the Milky Way has recently been found capable of forming newborn stars. The galactic center lies some…