Comet Meets Ring Nebula: Part II
影像版權與提供: Stefan Seip and Steffen Bruckner
Explanation:
As dawn approached on May 8, astronomer Stefan Seip carefully watched Fragment C of broken comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 approach M57 - the Ring Nebula, and faint spiral galaxy IC 1296. Of course, even though the trio seemed to come close together in a truly cosmic photo opportunity, the comet is in the inner part of our solar system, a mere 0.5 light-minutes or so from Seip's telescope located near Stuttgart, Germany, planet Earth. The Ring Nebula (upper right) is more like 2,000 light-years distant, well within our own Milky Way Galaxy. At a distance of 200 million light-years, IC 1296 (between comet and ring) is beyond even the Milky Way's boundaries. Because the comet is so close, it appears to move relatively rapidly against the distant stars. This dramatic telescopic view was composited from two sets of images; one compensating for the comet's apparent motion and one recording the background stars and nebulae.
說明:
在5月8日的清晨，天文學家仔細監看碎裂的73P/史瓦三號彗星之碎片C，逼近名為環狀星雲的M57以及昏暗的螺旋星系IC 1296。雖然在這幅天文影像裡，這三個天體看起來很接近，不過這顆彗星是太陽系內圍的天體，距離Seip位在地球．德國．史圖佳市的望遠鏡只有0.5光分。左上角的環狀星雲則有二千光年遠，位在我們的銀河系內。而影像中，夾在彗星和環狀星雲之間的 IC 1296，則在我們銀河系的邊界之外，距離約為二百萬光年。因為彗星離我們很近，所以相對於遙遠恆星移動得很快速。這幅精彩的望遠鏡影像，是由二組照片合成出來的；其中之一是為了補償彗星的視運動，另一組則用來捕捉背景恆星和星雲。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
