Reflections on NGC 6188
影像版權與提供: Robert Gendler & Martin Pugh
Explanation:
NGC 6188 is an interstellar carnival of young blue stars, hot red gas, and cool dark dust. Located 4,000 light years away in the disk of our Galaxy, NGC 6188 is home to the Ara OB1 association, a group of bright young stars whose nucleus forms the open cluster NGC 6193. These stars are so bright that some of their blue light reflects off of interstellar dust forming the diffuse blue glow surrounding the stars in the above photograph. Open cluster NGC 6193 formed about three million years ago from the surrounding gas, and appears unusually rich in close binary stars. The red glow visible throughout the photograph arises from hydrogen gas heated by the bright stars in Ara OB1. The dark dust that blocks much of NGC 6188's light was likely formed in the outer atmospheres of cooler stars and in supernovae ejecta.
說明:
NGC 6188是個由藍色年輕恆星、熾熱的紅色輝光雲氣和暗冷的塵埃雲所集成的星際嘉年華會。位在銀河系盤面上，距離有我們四千光年遠的NGC 6188，是一群明亮年輕恆星所組成的天壇座OB1星協之家園，這群星的核心為疏散星團NGC 6193。這些恆星是如此明亮，以至於部份由它們所發出的藍光被星際塵埃反射，形成上面影像中這些恆星周圍瀰漫藍色暉光。疏散星團NGC 6193大約在三百萬年前誕生於周圍的雲氣中，而且具有不尋常高比例的雙星系統。影像各處的紅色輝光，是由被天壇座OB1星協亮星加熱的氫氣所發出來的。遮掩了NGC 6188大部份星光的黝黑塵埃，可能形成於較低溫恆星的外層大氣或者是超新星的拋射碎片。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
