智利上空的麦哲伦云
(原标题: Magellanic Clouds over Chile)
2023-02-11
浏览次数: 16
在1月21日拍摄的这张智利阿塔卡马沙漠的天空景观中，两片突出的云实际上位于银河系之外。它们被称为大麦哲伦云和小麦哲伦云，以16世纪葡萄牙探险家费迪南德麦哲伦的名字命名，他是第一次环球航行的领导者。它们是南半球天空中著名的宝石，是银河系中最明亮的卫星星系。较大的星云距离我们约16万光年，较小的星云距离我们约21万光年。虽然这两个星系本身都是不规则的矮星系，但在深广角视图中它们表现出中心的棒状结构。广角和深角的曝光也显示了暗淡的尘埃状银河卷星云和大小麦哲伦云之间引力潮汐相互作用的印记。
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The two prominent clouds in this Chilean Atacama Desert skyscape captured on January 21 actually lie beyond our Milky Way galaxy. Known as the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds they are so named for the 16th century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, leader of the first circumnavigation of planet Earth. Famous jewels of southern hemisphere skies, they are the brightest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. The larger cloud is some 160,000 light-years, and the smaller 210,000 light-years distant. While both are irregular dwarf galaxies in their own right, they exhibit central barred structures in the deep wide-angle view. Wide and deep exposures also reveal faint dusty galactic cirrus nebulae and the imprints of gravitational tidal interactions between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
© Felipe Mac Auliffe López