NGC 772: fidlehead星系
(原标题: NGC 772: The Fiddlehead Galaxy)
2025-03-12
浏览次数: 30
为什么这个星系看起来像一个卷曲的蔬菜？fidlehead螺旋星系的扭曲螺旋外观很可能是由于与它附近的椭圆伴星ngc770的引力相互作用造成的，如下图所示。编号为NGC 772和Arp 78的Fiddlehead横跨20万光年，距离我们银河系的恒星大约1亿光年，在白羊座（白羊座）的方向上可以看到。但在这张特色图片中，fidlehead似乎还有另一个伙伴——一个长着长长的毛茸茸尾巴的伙伴：43P/Wolf-Harrington彗星。虽然这颗彗星看起来正对着这个巨大的星系，但实际上它离我们更近，距离我们只有几分钟的路程——在我们的太阳系内。这颗彗星永远不会到达遥远的螺旋星系，也与它没有物理上的联系。不过，幸运的是，这两个宇宙奇观在去年年底从法国卡伦拍摄的照片中短暂地出现在了同一张画面中。
查看原文解释
Why does this galaxy look like a curly vegetable? The Fiddlehead spiral galaxy likely gets its distorted spiral appearance from a gravitational interaction with its close-by elliptical companion NGC 770, seen just below. Cataloged as NGC 772 and Arp 78, the Fiddlehead spans over 200,000 light years, is a nearby 100 million light years beyond the stars of our Milky Way galaxy, and is visible toward the constellation of the Ram (Aries). But in the featured image, the Fiddlehead appears to have another companion -- one with a long and fuzzy tail: Comet 43P/Wolf-Harrington. Though the comet appears to be aimed straight at the massive galaxy, it is actually much closer to us, residing only light minutes away -- well within our Solar System. The comet will never reach the distant spiral galaxy, nor is it physically related to it. By a fortunate trick of perspective, though, these two cosmic wonders briefly share the same frame taken late last year from Calern, France.
© Jean-François Bax & Serge Brunier, OCA/C2PU; Text: Ogetay Kayali (Michigan Tech U.)