The Large Cloud of Magellan
影像版權與提供: Wei-Hao Wang--王為豪 (IfA, U. Hawaii)
Explanation:
Portuguese navigator Fernando de Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth. As a result, two fuzzy cloud-like objects easily visible for southern hemisphere skygazers are known as the Clouds of Magellan. Of course, these star clouds are now understood to be dwarf irregular galaxies, satellites of our larger spiral Milky Way galaxy. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) pictured above is only about 180,000 light-years distant in the constellation Dorado. Spanning about 15,000 light-years or so, it is the most massive of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies and is the site of the closest supernova in modern times. The prominent red knot on the left is 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula, a giant star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
說明:
在第一次環繞地球的航程中，葡萄牙航海家麥哲倫 (Fernando de Magellan)和他的船員有很多時間研究南半球的星空。也因為如此，南半球觀星者很容易看見的二團雲霧狀天體，就被稱為是麥哲倫星雲 (Clouds of Magellan)。現在我們知道這二個所謂的星雲，其實是不規則矮星系，也是我們銀河系的衛星星系。上面影像中的大麥哲倫星系 (LMC)，位在劍魚座內，距離我們只有十八萬光年遠。這個大小約為一萬五千光年的星系，是銀河系最大的衛星星系，也是近代最臨近超新星發生之處。影像左上方的醒目紅色光斑為劍魚座30，又稱為是蜘蛛星雲，是大麥哲倫星系的巨大恆星形成區。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
