Astronomy Picture of the Day—猎户座的瀑布M43

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2019 March 6

M43:Orion Falls

ImageCredit & Copyright: Zhuoqun Wu, Chilescope Telescope 2

Explanation:Is there a waterfall in Orion? No, but some of the dust in M43 appears similarto a waterfall on Earth. M43, part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, is theoften imaged but rarely mentioned neighbor of the more famous M42. M42, whichincludes many bright stars from the Trapezium cluster, lies above the featuredscene. M43 is itself a star forming region and although laced with filaments ofdark dust, is composed mostly of glowing hydrogen. The entire Orion field,located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with many intricate andpicturesque filaments of dust. Opaque to visible light, dark dust is created inthe outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by a strong outer windof protons and electrons.

猎户座的瀑布M43

解释：猎户座里有瀑布吗？当然没有，然而M43的一些尘埃分布看起来和地球上的瀑布十分相似。M43是猎户座分子云复合体的一部分，常常被拍摄到，但很少被提及它是更著名的M42的邻居。M42包括了这个特征场景上方的四边形星团的许多亮星。M43本身是恒星形成区，虽然萦绕着暗尘埃纤维，但大部分都由发光氢气组成。整个猎户座星场距离我们约1600光年，淹没在许多错综复杂而又美丽如画的尘埃纤维中。