星河与千颗红宝石
(原标题: M83: Star Streams and a Thousand Rubies)
2024-07-03
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巨大、明亮、美丽的螺旋星系M83位于1200万光年之外，靠近长蛇座的东南端。M83直径约4万光年，因其明显的旋臂而被称为南方风车。但是在星系臂厚的尘埃带边缘发现的大量红色恒星形成区域，也让我们想到了M83的另一个流行的绰号——千红宝石星系。这张新的深望远镜数字图像也记录了明亮星系微弱的延伸光晕。在宇宙框架的底部有一个弧形的恒星潮汐流，它是由一个较小的合并卫星星系的引力破坏从巨大的M83中产生的碎片。天文学家大卫·马林和布莱恩·哈德利在20世纪90年代中期通过增强照相底片发现了难以捉摸的恒星流。
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Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. About 40,000 light-years across, M83 is known as the Southern Pinwheel for its pronounced spiral arms. But the wealth of reddish star forming regions found near the edges of the arms' thick dust lanes, also suggest another popular moniker for M83, the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. This new deep telescopic digital image also records the bright galaxy's faint, extended halo. Arcing toward the bottom of the cosmic frame lies a stellar tidal stream, debris drawn from massive M83 by the gravitational disruption of a smaller, merging satellite galaxy. Astronomers David Malin and Brian Hadley found the elusive star stream in the mid 1990s by enhancing photographic plates.
© Michael Sidonio