NGC 6727: 狒狒星云

NGC 6727: 狒狒星云

BySamuel Chan

A brown dusty nebula is shown in front of a star field. The nebula looks to some like a baboon, with red emission stemming from the mouth and blue reflection from the eyes. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
星空前有一团褐色尘埃星云。在一些人看来，这个星云就像一只狒狒，嘴巴发出红色的光，眼睛反射出蓝色的光。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。

仙后座“策”与幽灵状星云

仙后座“策”与幽灵状星云

ByNASA中文

2023年10月28日 The Ghosts of Gamma Cas Image Credit & Copyright: Guillaume Gruntz, Jean-François Bax Explanation: Gamma Cassiopeiae shines high in northern autumn evening skies. It’s the brightest spiky star in this telescopic field of view toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Gamma Cas shares the ethereal-looking scene with ghostly interstellar clouds of gas and dust, IC 59 (top left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, the clouds aren’t actually ghosts. They are slowly disappearing though, eroding under the influence of energetic radiation from hot and luminous gamma Cas. Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae. Slightly closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as hydrogen atoms ionized by the star’s ultraviolet radiation recombine with…

IC 2118: 女巫头星云

IC 2118: 女巫头星云

ByNASA中文

2023年10月4日 IC 2118: The Witch Head Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Abdullah Alharbi Explanation: Does this nebula look like the head of a witch? The nebula is known popularly as the Witch Head Nebula because, it is said, the nebula’s shape resembles a Halloween-style caricature of a witch’s head. Exactly how, though, can be a topic of imaginative speculation. What is clear is that IC 2118 is about 50 light-years across and made of gas and dust that points to — because it has been partly eroded by — the nearby star Rigel. One of the brighter stars in the constellation Orion, Rigel lies below the bottom of the featured image. The blue color of the Witch Head Nebula and is caused not only by…

IC 4592：蓝马头反射星云

IC 4592：蓝马头反射星云

ByNASA中文

2023年9月26日 IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Antoine & Dalia Grelin Explanation: Do you see the horse’s head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion, but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the here-imaged molecular cloud complex is reflection nebula IC 4592. Reflection nebulas are made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the visible light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse. That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward…