NGC 6164：龙蛋星云和光环
(原标题: NGC 6164: Dragon's Egg Nebula and Halo)
2022-12-26
浏览次数: 16
中心的恒星创造了一切。这颗恒星被称为龙蛋，是一颗罕见的、炽热的、发光的o型恒星，质量大约是太阳的40倍。它不仅创造了环绕它的复杂星云（NGC 6164），还创造了环绕它的蓝色光环。它的名字部分源于该地区靠近风景如画的NGC 6188，被称为阿拉的战斗之龙。再过三到四百万年，这颗巨大的恒星可能会在超新星爆炸中结束它的生命。这个星云的跨度约为4光年，它本身具有双极对称，这使得它在外观上与更常见的行星状星云相似——行星状星云是围绕着垂死的类太阳恒星的气体罩。和许多行星状星云一样，NGC 6164也被发现有一个巨大而微弱的光晕，在这张深望远镜拍摄的区域图像中显示为蓝色。膨胀到周围的星际介质中，蓝色光晕中的物质很可能是从o型星的早期活跃阶段排出的。NGC 6164位于4200光年外的南卡彭特广场（诺玛）星座。
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The star at the center created everything. Known as the Dragon's Egg, this star -- a rare, hot, luminous O-type star some 40 times as massive as the Sun -- created not only the complex nebula (NGC 6164) that immediately surrounds it, but also the encompassing blue halo. Its name is derived, in part, from the region's proximity to the picturesque NGC 6188, known as the fighting Dragons of Ara. In another three to four million years the massive star will likely end its life in a supernova explosion. Spanning around 4 light-years, the nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry making it similar in appearance to more common planetary nebulae - the gaseous shrouds surrounding dying sun-like stars. Also like many planetary nebulae, NGC 6164 has been found to have an extensive, faint halo, revealed in blue in this deep telescopic image of the region. Expanding into the surrounding interstellar medium, the material in the blue halo was likely expelled from an earlier active phase of the O-star. NGC 6164 lies 4,200 light-years away in the southern constellation of the Carpenter's Square (Norma).
© Russell Croman