Dusty Spiral M66
影像提供: M. Neeser (Univ.-Sternwarte Munchen), P. Barthel (Kapteyn Astron. Institute), H. Heyer, H. Boffin (ESO), ESO
Explanation:
When morning twilight came to the Paranal Observatory in Chile, astronomers Mark Neeser and Peter Barthel interrupted their search for faint quasars, billions of light-years away. And just for a moment, they used Very Large Telescopes at the European Southern Observatory to appreciate the beauty of the nearby Universe. One result was this stunning view of beautiful spiral galaxy M66, a mere 35 million light-years away. About 100 thousand light-years across with striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms, M66 is well known to astronomers as a member of the Leo Triplet of galaxies. Gravitational interactions with its neighborhood galaxies have likely influenced the shape of dusty spiral M66.
說明:
當曙光降臨智利的帕連那天文台時，天文學家Mark Neeser和Peter Barthel中斷他們搜尋數十億光年外昏暗 類星體的工作，轉而用歐洲南天文台的極大望遠鏡去觀賞鄰近的美麗宇宙。其中的成果之一，是這幅離我們只有3千5百萬光年的美麗螺旋星系M66之精彩影像。這個星系的大小約為十萬光年，蜿蜒漩渦臂上有壯觀的塵埃帶和明亮的星團。對天文學家而言，M66是獅子座三重星系的成員之一。它和鄰近星系經由重力互動，M66漩渦臂的外觀可能因此受到影響。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
