亮、暗与尘埃飞扬的三叶星云

亮、暗与尘埃飞扬的三叶星云

The Light, Dark, and Dusty Trifid
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Edelmaier and Gabriele Gegenbauer

Explanation: Messier 20, popularly known as the Trifid Nebula, lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette. The reddish emission region, roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust lanes, is what lends the Trifid its popular name. The cosmic cloud complex is over 40 light-years across and would cover the area of a full moon on planet Earth’s sky. But the Trifid Nebula is too faint to be seen by the unaided eye. Over 75 hours of image data captured under dark night skies was used to create this stunning telescopic view.

Watch: The Perseid Meteor Shower

Tomorrow’s picture: animation in space

亮、暗与尘埃飞扬的三叶星云
影像提供与版权: Robert Edelmaier and Gabriele Gegenbauer

说明: 俗称三叶星云的M20，位于布满星云的人马座方向约5,000光年远处。三叶星云是位在我们银河系盘面上的恒星形成区之一，同时拥有三种基本形态的天文星云：被氢原子辉光渲染成红色的发射星云、尘埃反射星光所形成的蓝色反射星云、与名为暗星云的致密尘埃云之剪影。此外，在不透光的尘埃带的分切下，明亮的红色发射星云被分成三片，因此为它博得三叶星云的称号。这团过于昏暗肉眼不得见、宽约40多光年的宇宙星云复合体，在地球天空中涵盖的面积几乎与满月相当。这幅引人赞叹的望远镜影像，建构自摄影者于幽暗夜空下进行了超过75小时曝光所得的数据。

观看: 英仙座流星雨

明日的图片: animation in space