Astronomy Picture of the Day——M16与鹰状星云

M16 and the Eagle Nebula 
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

Explanation: A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed portrait of the region was made with groundbased narrow and broadband image data. It includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission at lower left is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 lies about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).

M16与鹰状星云

M16也被称作鹰状星云，是一个由仅200万年历史的年轻星团和周围环绕着的尘埃、炽热气体所组成的新生星云。这幅细致美丽的图像是由地面的望远镜拍摄到的窄带和宽带影像数据组合而成。它呈现了由哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的恒星所形成的复杂体特写影像中一些著名的宇宙雕塑。图像中央附近隆起的致密尘埃柱长达数光年，被称为象鼻或创生之柱，在引力收缩作用下会不断形成恒星。来自星团中恒星的高能辐射侵蚀了云柱顶部的物质，最终暴露出其内部的新生恒星。从图像左下方的明亮发射云气脊延伸出来的是另一个恒星形成的尘埃柱，也称为鹰状星云。M16距离地球约7000光年，位于巨蛇座的尾部方向，使用双筒望远镜或小型望远镜在天空中很容易看到它。

高清原图地址：

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1911/M16_HaSynLumLumRGB.jpg

近期文章：

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