M83: 恒星流与千颗红宝石

M83: 恒星流与千颗红宝石

M83: Star Streams and a Thousand Rubies
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Sidonio

Explanation: Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. About 40,000 light-years across, M83 is known as the Southern Pinwheel for its pronounced spiral arms. But the wealth of reddish star forming regions found near the edges of the arms’ thick dust lanes, also suggest another popular moniker for M83, the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. This new deep telescopic digital image also records the bright galaxy’s faint, extended halo. Arcing toward the bottom of the cosmic frame lies a stellar tidal stream, debris drawn from massive M83 by the gravitational disruption of a smaller, merging satellite galaxy. Astronomers David Malin and Brian Hadley found the elusive star stream in the mid 1990s by enhancing photographic plates.

Tomorrow’s picture: red, white, blue

M83: 恒星流与千颗红宝石
影像提供与版权: Michael Sidonio

说明: 庞大、明亮而且美丽的螺旋星系M83，位于长蛇座的最南端，离我们只有1千2百万光年远。宽约40,000年、拥有鲜明壮丽螺旋臂的M83，有南风车星系之称。而镶在它螺旋臂上的厚实尘埃带边缘之众多泛红恒星形成区，更为它博得千红宝石星系的美称。此外，这幅全新的深空数字影像，还记录了这个明亮星系的昏暗绵延外晕。在这片宇宙视野里，蜿蜒向底缘伸展的恒星潮汐流，则是被合并的较小伴星系之破坏性引力扰动，从大质量M83拉出的碎片。1990年代时，天文学家大卫．马林及布莱恩·哈德利透过强化照像底板，发现了这道难以捉摸的恒星流。

明日的图片: red, white, blue