Astronomy Picture of the Day——飞越涡状星系的虚拟影像
Virtual Flyby of the Whirlpool Galaxy
Video Credit: F. Summers, J. DePasquale,and D. Player (STScI); Music: Into the Wormhole (Jingle Punks via Youtube)
Explanation: What would it look like to flyover a spiral galaxy? To help visualize this, astronomers and animators at theSpace Telescope Science Institute computed a virtual flyby of the WhirlpoolGalaxy (M51) using data and images from the Hubble Space Telescope. At only 25million light years distant and fully 50 thousand light years across, theWhirlpool is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky.Visible during the virtual flyby are spiral arms dominated by young blue stars,older lighter-colored stars, dark lanes of dust, and bright red emissionnebulae. Many galaxies far in the distance can be seen right through M51. Thevisualization should be considered a time-lapse, because otherwise the speed ofthe virtual camera would need to be very near the speed of light.
飞越涡状星系的虚拟影像
飞越涡状星系会是怎样的景象呢个？为了呈现可视化效果，空间望远镜研究所联合艺术家们利用哈勃太空望远镜的数据和影像绘制了一次涡状星系（M51）的虚拟飞越。M51距离地球仅2500万光年，其直径足有5万光年，是天空中最明亮、最美丽的星系之一。在虚拟飞越过程中可以看到主要由年轻蓝色恒星、古老浅色恒星、黑暗尘埃带以及亮红色发射星云构成的旋臂。穿过M51还可以看到许多遥远的星系。这里可视化效果应该被认为是一种延时，否则虚拟摄像机的速度需要非常接近光速。
参考文献：
https://youtu.be/HBhqr0KkntQ
近期文章：
Astronomy Picture of the Day——土星、土卫六、土星环和烟霾