帕洛玛6：球状星团

帕洛玛6：球状星团

ByNASA中文

2021年10月19日 Palomar 6: Globular Star Cluster Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, R. Cohen Explanation: Where did this big ball of stars come from? Palomar 6 is one of about 200 globular clusters of stars that survive in our Milky Way Galaxy. These spherical star-balls are older than our Sun as well as older than most stars that orbit in our galaxy’s disk. Palomar 6 itself is estimated to be about 12.5 billion years old, so old that it is close to — and so constrains — the age of the entire universe. Containing about 500,000 stars, Palomar 6 lies about 25,000 light years away, but not very far from our galaxy’s center. At that distance, this sharp image from the Hubble Space Telescope spans about…

星光和尘埃织就的夜晚

星光和尘埃织就的夜晚

ByNASA中文

2021年10月2日 A Light and Dusty Night Image Credit & Copyright: Rodrigo Guerra Explanation: Posing as a brilliant evening star, Venus lies near the western horizon in this southern hemisphere, early spring, night skyscape. To create the composite view exposures tracking the sky and fixed for the foreground were taken on September 25 from Cascavel in southern Brazil. In view after sunset, Venus appears immersed in a cone of zodiacal light, sunlight scattered from dust along the Solar System’s ecliptic plane. In fact from either hemisphere of planet Earth, zodiacal light is most visible after sunset near a spring equinox, (or before sunrise near an autumn equinox) when its luminous arc lies at steep angles to the horizon. Extending above the sunset on this night, the…

泻湖与烟斗之间的银河

泻湖与烟斗之间的银河

ByNASA中文

2021年10月1日 The Central Milky Way from Lagoon to Pipe Image Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Rodrigues Santos Explanation: Dark markings and colorful clouds inhabit this stellar landscape. The deep and expansive view spans more than 30 full moons across crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds seen toward the right include B59, B72, B77 and B78, part of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex a mere 450 light-years away. To the eye their combined shape suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula’s popular name is the Pipe Nebula. Three bright nebulae gathered on the left are stellar nurseries some 5,000 light-years distant toward…

夜空的倒影

夜空的倒影

ByNASA中文

2021年9月13日 Night Sky Reflected Image Credit & Copyright: Egon Filter Explanation: What’s that in the mirror? In the featured image of the dark southern sky, the three brightest galaxies of the night are all relatively easy to identify. Starting from the left, these are the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. All three are also seen reflected in a shallow pool of water. But what is seen in the mirror being positioned by the playful astrophotographer? Dust clouds near the center of our Milky Way — and the planet Jupiter. The composite was carefully planned and composed from images captured from the same camera in the same location and during the…

萤火虫与银河

萤火虫与银河

ByNASA中文

2021年9月6日 Firefly Milky Way over Russia Image Credit & Copyright: Anton Komlev Explanation: It started with a pine tree. The idea was to photograph a statuesque pine in front of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. And the plan, carried out two months ago, was successful — they both appear prominently. But the resulting 3-frame panorama captured much more. Colorful stars, for example, dot the distant background, with bright Altair visible on the upper left. The planet Saturn, a bit closer, was captured just over the horizon on the far left. Just beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, seen in the upper right, an Earth-orbiting satellite was caught leaving a streak during the 25-second exposure. The Earth’s atmosphere itself was surprisingly visible — as green…

英仙座流星与银河

英仙座流星与银河

ByNASA中文

2021年8月3日 A Perseid Fireball and the Milky Way Image Credit & Copyright: Dandan Huang Explanation: It was bright and green and flashed as it moved quickly along the Milky Way. It left a trail that took 30 minutes to dissipate. Given the day, August 12, and the direction, away from Perseus, it was likely a small bit from the nucleus of Comet Swift-Tuttle plowing through the Earth’s atmosphere — and therefore part of the annual Perseids meteor shower. The astrophotographer captured the fireball as it shot across the sky in 2018 above a valley in Yichang, Hubei, China. The meteor’s streak, also caught on video, ended near the direction of Mars on the lower left. Next week, the 2021 Perseids meteor shower will peak again….

树梢框住的银河系

树梢框住的银河系

ByNASA中文

2021年7月19日 Framed by Trees: A Window to the Galaxy Image Credit & Copyright: Will Godward Explanation: The photographer had this shot in mind for some time. He knew that objects overhead are the brightest — since their light is scattered the least by atmospheric air. He also that knew the core of our Milky Way Galaxy was just about straight up near midnight around this time of year in South Australia. Chasing his mental picture, he ventured deep inside the Kuipto Forest where tall radiata pines blocked out much of the sky — but not in this clearing. There, through a window framed by trees, he captured his envisioned combination of local and distant nature. Sixteen exposures of both trees and the Milky Way Galaxy…

银河

银河

ByNASA中文

2021年07月03日 Along the Milky Way Image Credit & Copyright: Rolf Weisenfeld Explanation: You can’t walk along the Milky Way. Still, under a dark sky you can explore it. To the eye the pale luminous trail of light arcing through the sky on a dark, moonless night does appear to be a path through the heavens. The glowing celestial band is the faint, collective light of distant stars cut by swaths of obscuring interstellar dust clouds. It lies along the plane of our home galaxy, so named because it looks like a milky way. Since Galileo’s time, the Milky Way has been revealed to telescopic skygazers to be filled with congeries of innumerable stars and cosmic wonders. Tomorrow’s picture: Facing Mars 银河 影像提供与版权: Rolf Weisenfeld 说明:…

食月与银河

食月与银河

ByNASA中文

2021年05月27日 Mid-Eclipse and Milky Way Image Credit & Copyright: John Kraus Explanation: May’s perigee Full Moon slid through Earth’s shadow yesterday entertaining night skygazers in regions around the Pacific. Seen from western North America, it sinks toward the rugged Sierra Nevada mountain range in this time-lapse series of the total lunar eclipse. Low on the western horizon the Moon was captured at mid-eclipse with two separate exposures. Combined they reveal the eclipsed Moon’s reddened color against the dark night sky and the diffuse starlight band of the Milky Way. Frames taken every five minutes from the fixed camera follow the surrounding progression of the eclipse partial phases. In the foreground a radio telescope dish at California’s Owen’s Valley Radio Observatory points skyward. Tomorrow’s picture: pixels…

雅科瑞帖上方的深空景观

雅科瑞帖上方的深空景观

ByNASA中文

2021年05月08日 Deepscape at Yacoraite Image Credit & Copyright: Franco Meconi Explanation: In this evocative night scene a dusty central Milky Way rises over the ancient Andean archaeological site of Yacoraite in northwestern Argentina. The denizens of planet Earth reaching skyward are the large Argentine saguaro cactus currently native to the arid region. The unusual yellow-hued reflection nebula above is created by dust scattering starlight around red giant star Antares. Alpha star of the constellation Scorpius, Antares is over 500 light-years distant. Next to it bright blue Rho Ophiuchi is embedded in more typical dusty bluish reflection nebulae though. The deep night skyscape was created from a series of background exposures of the rising stars made while tracking the sky, and a foreground exposure of the…