M8: The Lagoon Nebula
影像提供 Processing: Tom Davis, Acquisition: Jim Misti
Explanation:
This beautiful cosmic cloud is a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius. Eighteenth century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged the bright nebula as M8, while modern day astronomers recognize the Lagoon Nebula as an active stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years distant, in the direction of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Striking details can be traced through this remarkable picture, processed to reveal the Lagoon's range of filaments of glowing hydrogen gas and dark dust clouds along with the brighter, turbulent hourglass region at the upper right. The view is a color composite of narrow and broad band images recorded under dark skies in northwestern Arizona. At the Lagoon's estimated distance, the picture spans about 30 light-years.
說明:
這張照片上的宇宙雲，是當我們進行望遠鏡的巡禮，到達 射手座(Sagittarius) 時會停下來欣賞的景點。 十八世紀的天文學家Charles 梅西耶(Messier)將這個星雲編號為M8，而現代天文學家視這個礁湖星雲為新星形成區域，距離約 5,000 光年，方向為本銀河系中心。 從這張照片可以看出很多發展的 細節，包含細絲般發亮的氫氣，伴隨著黑暗星雲的紊流及沙漏區域，在右上角。 這張是由窄波段及寬波段的影像，在 亞利桑那州的西北角所拍攝。 以這個礁湖星雲的距離來看，照片大約是30光年寬。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
