NGC 1316：星系碰撞后
(原标题: NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide)
2022-05-17
浏览次数: 15
当天文学家试图找出像NGC 1316这样令人震惊的景象的原因时，他们变成了侦探。研究表明，NGC 1316是一个巨大的椭圆星系，大约在1亿年前开始吞噬一个较小的螺旋星系邻居NGC 1317，就在右上方。支持证据包括螺旋星系特有的黑暗尘埃带，以及在这幅宽而深的图像中可见的暗淡漩涡和恒星和气体的外壳。>仍然无法解释的一件事是异常小的球状星团，在图像上可以看到微弱的点。大多数椭圆星系都有比ngc1316更多更亮的球状星团。然而，观测到的球状星团太老了，不可能是由最近的螺旋碰撞产生的。一种假设是，这些球状星团是从一个更早的星系中幸存下来的，这个星系被纳入了ngc1316。NGC 1316（也被称为天炉座A）的另一个令人惊讶的特征是，它的巨大气体瓣在无线电波中发出明亮的光芒。
查看原文解释
Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of startling sights like NGC 1316. Investigations indicate that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that started, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller spiral galaxy neighbor, NGC 1317, just on the upper right. Supporting evidence includes the dark dust lanes characteristic of a spiral galaxy, and faint swirls and shells of stars and gas visible in this wide and deep image. One thing that >remains unexplained is the unusually small globular star clusters, seen as faint dots on the image. Most elliptical galaxies have more and brighter globular clusters than NGC 1316. Yet the observed globulars are too old to have been created by the recent spiral collision. One hypothesis is that these globulars survive from an even earlier galaxy that was subsumed into NGC 1316. Another surprising attribute of NGC 1316, also known as Fornax A, is its giant lobes of gas that glow brightly in radio waves.
© Capture: Greg Turgeon; Processing: Kiko Fairbairn