M83: 南风车星系

M83: 南风车星系

M83: The Southern Pinwheel
Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA;
Processing: T. A. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage/NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NOIRLab)

Explanation: Beautiful and bright spiral galaxy M83 lies a some twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, The Southern Pinwheel. Still, reddish star forming regions that dot this cosmic pinwheel’s spiral arms have suggested another nickname, the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. A mere 40,000 light-years across, smaller than the Milky Way, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy Centaurus A. In fact, the core of M83 itself is bright at x-ray energies, showing a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from an intense burst of star formation. This sharp color image also features spiky foreground Milky Way stars and distant background galaxies. The image data was captured with the Dark Energy Camera and Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space

M83: 南风车星系
影像提供: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA;
影像处理: T. A. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage/NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NOIRLab)

说明: 美丽明亮的螺旋星系M83，位在长蛇座的最南端，离我们只有1千2百万光年远。因为拥有由黝黑尘埃带和蓝色星团勾勒出的壮丽螺旋臂，因此有南风车星系的美名。此外，就如在上面这幅耀眼的彩色组合影像所示，散布在巨大螺旋臂上的红色恒星形成区，也为它博得千红宝石星系的称号。宽约只有40,000光年、比银河系娇小的M83，是它所在星系团的大成员之一，其他的成员还包括活跃星系半人马A。M83的核心在X射线波段非常明亮，并且拥有恒星形成暴所留下来的大量中子星和黑洞。这幅清晰的彩色影像，还记录了带芒的前景银河系恒星与遥远的背景星系。组成这幅影像的数据，来自昴宿望远镜、欧南天天文台的广角相机、与哈勃传家宝资料库。建构这幅影像的数据，则来自托洛洛山美洲天文台（CTIO）配置暗能量相机的4米口径布兰柯望远镜。

明日的图片: pixels in space