影像版權與提供: Robert Gendler
Explanation:
Similar in size to other large, bright spiral galaxies IC 342 is a mere 7 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis. A sprawling island universe, IC 342 would otherwise be a prominent galaxy in our night sky, but it is almost hidden from view behind the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Even though IC 342's light is dimmed by intervening cosmic clouds, this remarkably sharp telescopic image traces the galaxy's own obscuring dust, blue star clusters, and glowing pink star forming regions along spiral arms that wind far from the galaxy's core. IC 342 may have undergone a recent burst of star formation activity and is close enough to have gravitationally influenced the evolution of the local group of galaxies and the Milky Way.
說明:
大小和其他大型明亮螺旋星系相近的IC 342，位在北天的鹿豹座 (Camelopardalis)內，距離我們只有七百萬光年遠。 IC 342這個幅源廣闊的宇宙島，應該會是我們夜空中一個很顯著的星系，但在我們銀河系盤面上的恆星、雲氣和塵埃的遮掩下，反而幾乎隱不可見。雖然IC 342的光幾乎被居中的宇宙雲氣給消去了，但這幅精彩的清晰望遠鏡影像，還是能展現這個星系蜿蜒漩渦臂上的塵埃、藍色星團和發出粉紅輝光的恆星形成區。IC 342最近可能曾經歷一次爆發性的恆星形成活動，它離本星系群和我們的銀河系夠近，因此星系的演化受到這些鄰居重力的影響。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
