哈勃拍摄的星暴星系M94
(原标题: Starburst Galaxy M94 from Hubble)
2022-07-31
浏览次数: 15
为什么这个星系有一个明亮的蓝色恒星环？美丽的岛屿宇宙梅西耶94位于北方猎犬星座（Canes Venatici），距离我们仅1500万光年。这个面朝上的螺旋星系是地球上天文学家的热门目标，它的直径约为3万光年，螺旋臂扫过它宽阔的圆盘的边缘。但这张哈勃太空望远镜的视野横跨M94的中心区域约7000光年。这张特写突出了星系紧凑明亮的核心，突出的内部尘埃带，以及由年轻大质量恒星组成的引人注目的蓝色环。这些环状恒星的年龄可能都不到1000万年，这表明M94是一个星暴星系，正在经历一个由吸入气体快速形成恒星的时代。蓝色恒星的圆形波纹可能是一种向外传播的波，是由椭圆形物质分布的重力和旋转引发的。由于M94相对较近，天文学家可以更好地探索其星爆环的细节。
查看原文解释
Why does this galaxy have a ring of bright blue stars? Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). A popular target for Earth-based astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad disk. But this Hubble Space Telescope field of view spans about 7,000 light-years across M94's central region. The featured close-up highlights the galaxy's compact, bright nucleus, prominent inner dust lanes, and the remarkable bluish ring of young massive stars. The ring stars are all likely less than 10 million years old, indicating that M94 is a starburst galaxy that is experiencing an epoch of rapid star formation from inspiraling gas. The circular ripple of blue stars is likely a wave propagating outward, having been triggered by the gravity and rotation of a oval matter distributions. Because M94 is relatively nearby, astronomers can better explore details of its starburst ring.