保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2023年5月30日 M27: The Dumbbell Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Patrick A. Cosgrove Explanation: Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun‘s future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier...
2023年5月25日 Cat’s Eye Wide and Deep Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-François Bax, Guillaume Gruntz Explanation: The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle view. But this wide and deep image ...
2023年5月7日 The Helix Nebula from CFHT Image Credit: CFHT, Coelum, MegaCam, J.-C. Cuillandre (CFHT) & G. A. Anselmi (Coelum) Explanation: Will our Sun look like this one day? The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The outer gasses of the star expelled ...
2023年4月16日 M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA; Processing: Judy Schmidt Explanation: Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die? Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die. In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and M2-9 pictured here, the stars transform themselves...
2023年4月3日 The Galactic Center Radio Arc Image Credit: Ian Heywood (Oxford U.), SARAO; Explanation: What causes this unusual curving structure near the center of our Galaxy? The long parallel rays slanting across the top of the featured radio image are known collectively as the Galactic Center Radio Arc and point out from the Galactic plane. The Radio Arc is ...
2023年4月2日 M57: The Ring Nebula from Hubble Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing: Judy Schmidt Explanation: It was noticed hundreds of years ago by stargazers who could not understand its unusual shape. It looked like a ring on the sky. Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) may be the most famous celestial circle. We now ...
2023年3月17日 The Medusa Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Bradley Chesterfield Astronomical Society Explanation: Braided and serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula’s popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its ...
2023年2月24日 Jones-Emberson 1 Image Credit & Copyright: Serge Brunier, Jean-François Bax, David Vernet, C2PU/OCA Explanation: Planetary nebula Jones-Emberson 1 is the death shroud of a dying Sun-like star. It lies some 1,600 light-years from Earth toward the sharp-eyed constellation Lynx. About 4 light-years across, the expanding remnant of the dying star...
2022年12月26日 NGC 6164: Dragon’s Egg Nebula and Halo Image Credit & Copyright: Russell Croman Explanation: The star at the center created everything. Known as the Dragon’s Egg, this star — a rare, hot, luminous O-type star some 40 times as massive as the Sun — created not only the complex nebula (NGC 6164) that immediately surround...
2022年12月7日 NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Tommaso Stella Explanation: A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, toward the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. The dying star’s last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of...