星系M66特写

星系M66特写

Messier 66 Close Up
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 66 lies a mere 35 million light-years away. The gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across, similar in size to the Milky Way. This Hubble Space Telescope close-up view spans a region about 30,000 light-years wide around the galactic core. It shows the galaxy’s disk dramatically inclined to our line-of-sight. Surrounding its bright core, the likely home of a supermassive black hole, obscuring dust lanes and young, blue star clusters sweep along spiral arms dotted with the tell-tale glow of pinkish star forming regions. Messier 66, also known as NGC 3627, is the brightest of the three galaxies in the gravitationally interacting Leo Triplet.

Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space

星系M66特写
影像提供: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.
志谢: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler

说明: 庞大美丽的螺旋星系M66，距离我们只有3千5百万光年远。这个壮丽宇宙岛的跨幅约为10万光年，大小和银河系相当。由哈勃太空望远镜所拍摄的这幅特写影像，则涵盖M66的核心约30,000光年的区域。在其中，可见到星系盘沿视线方向有相当大的倾角。而在可能藏有超大质量黑洞的核心周围的螺旋臂上，则散布着黝黑尘埃带、泛蓝星团、及散发特征粉红辉光的恒星形成区。亦名为NGC 3627的M66，是以重力互扰的狮子三重星系中的最明亮成员。

明日的图片: pixels in space