来自韦伯的星团IC 348
(原标题: Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb)
2024-01-15
浏览次数: 15
有时候，最难以看到的星星反而是最有趣的。IC 348是一个年轻的星团，照亮了周围的丝状尘埃。在韦伯太空望远镜最近发布的这张红外图像中，这种缠绕的尘埃呈粉红色。在可见光中，这些尘埃主要反射蓝光，使周围的物质呈现出反射星云所熟悉的蓝色色调。除了明亮的恒星外，IC 348中还发现了一些较冷的天体，因为它们在红外光下发出更亮的光。这些物体被假设为低质量的褐矮星。证据包括检测到一种未知的大气化学物质，可能是碳氢化合物，之前在土星的大气中看到过。这些天体的质量似乎比已知的行星略大，只比木星大几倍。总之，这些都表明这个年轻的星团包含一些值得注意的东西——年轻的行星质量的褐矮星，它们自由漂浮，不围绕任何其他恒星运行。
查看原文解释
Sometimes, it's the stars that are the hardest to see that are the most interesting. IC 348 is a young star cluster that illuminates surrounding filamentary dust. The stringy and winding dust appears pink in this recently released infrared image from the Webb Space Telescope. In visible light, this dust reflects mostly blue light, giving the surrounding material the familiar blue hue of a reflection nebula. Besides bright stars, several cool objects have been located in IC 348, visible because they glow brighter in infrared light. These objects are hypothesized to be low mass brown dwarfs. Evidence for this includes the detection of an unidentified atmospheric chemical, likely a hydrocarbon, seen previously in the atmosphere of Saturn. These objects appear to have masses slightly greater than known planets, only a few times greater than Jupiter. Together, these indicate that this young star cluster contains something noteworthy -- young planet-mass brown dwarfs that float free, not orbiting any other star.