猫眼星云的光学和x射线
(原标题: The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray)
2024-01-07
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对一些人来说，它看起来像猫眼。对其他人来说，也许就像一个巨大的宇宙海螺壳。它实际上是已知的最明亮、最精细的行星状星云之一，由一颗类太阳恒星生命末期短暂而辉煌的阶段排出的气体组成。这个星云垂死的中央恒星可能在一系列有规律的震动中摆脱了外层，产生了外层的同心圆壳。然而，美丽、复杂而对称的内部结构的形成还没有得到很好的理解。这张特色图像是由数字锐化的哈勃太空望远镜图像与轨道钱德拉天文台捕获的x射线合成的。这座精致的漂浮太空雕像横跨半光年。当然，凝视着这颗猫眼，人类很可能看到了我们太阳的命运，注定要进入它自己的行星状星云进化阶段……大约50亿年后。
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To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic conch shell. It is actually one of the brightest and most highly detailed planetary nebula known, composed of gas expelled in the brief yet glorious phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star. This nebula's dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. The formation of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric inner structures, however, is not well understood. The featured image is a composite of a digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope image with X-ray light captured by the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into this Cat's Eye, humanity may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years.