NASA 美国宇航局的每日一图 3月份
发布: 2009-1-14 17:53 | 作者: webmaster | 来源: 本站原创 | 查看: 156次
2008 March 22 
影像版权与提供: Vicent Peris (OAUV / PTeam), MAST, STScI, AURA, NASA 说明: 隔着星际空间凝视着我们的猫眼星云，距离地球有三千光年远。地球天空中最著名的行星状星云之一的猫眼星云，编录号是NGC 6543，大小约有半光年，为一颗类似太阳恒星生命周期中，最后、短暂但灿烂的谢幕式。这个行星状星云内，即将死亡的中心星，可能在一系列规律的爆发中，不停地拋掷出外层物质，因此形成了星云外围同心圆状的尘埃壳。不过，形态较复杂的美丽内围结构之成因，现在仍未能全盘了解。和哈伯太空望远镜著名的猫眼星云影像比起来，上面这张影像最大的差异是影像后制处理的方法不同，使用更复杂的配色表，以提升影像的清晰度，以及淡色和暗色区域细微构造的可分办度，因此也呈现了不同风貌的猫眼星云。借着探索猫眼星云，天文学家也等于看见我们太阳的宿命，将来，它也会演化到行星状星云阶段，只不过，这还得再等五十亿年。
Explanation: Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat's Eye Nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. One of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky, the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) is over half a light-year across and represents a final, brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star. This nebula's dying central star may have produced the simple, outer pattern of dusty concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. But the formation of the beautiful, more complex inner structures is not well understood. Here, Hubble Space Telescope archival image data has been reprocessed to create another look the cosmic cat's eye. Compared to well-known Hubble pictures, the alternative processing strives to sharpen and improve the visiblility of details in light and dark areas of the nebula and also applies a more complex color palette. Of course, gazing into the Cat's Eye, astronomers may well be seeing the fate of our Sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years.
Explanation: Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat's Eye Nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. One of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky, the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) is over half a light-year across and represents a final, brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star. This nebula's dying central star may have produced the simple, outer pattern of dusty concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. But the formation of the beautiful, more complex inner structures is not well understood. Here, Hubble Space Telescope archival image data has been reprocessed to create another look the cosmic cat's eye. Compared to well-known Hubble pictures, the alternative processing strives to sharpen and improve the visiblility of details in light and dark areas of the nebula and also applies a more complex color palette. Of course, gazing into the Cat's Eye, astronomers may well be seeing the fate of our Sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years.
