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原文:
Mysterious Hanny’s Voorwerp, Dutch for “Hanny’s Object”, is really enormous, about the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and glowing strongly in the greenish light produced by ionized oxygen atoms. It is thought to be a tidal tail of material left by an ancient galaxy merger, illuminated and ionized by the outburst of a quasar inhabiting the center of distant spiral galaxy IC 2497. Its exciting 2007 discovery by Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel while participating online in the Galaxy Zoo project has since inspired a search and discovery of eight more eerie green cosmic features. Imaged in these panels by the Hubble Space Telescope, all eight appear near galaxies with energetic cores. Far outside their associated galaxies, these objects are also likely echoes of quasar activity, illuminated only as light from a core quasar outburst reaches them and ultimately fading tens of thousands of years after the quasar outburst itself has faded away. Of course a galaxy merger like the impending merger of our own Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, could also trigger the birth of a quasar that would illuminate our distant future version of Hanny’s Voorwerp.
中文翻譯:
🪐✨ 神秘的 Hanny’s Voorwerp，直譯為「Hanny’s Object」，實在巨大，與我們的銀河系差不多大，散發著由離子化氧原子所產生的綠色光芒。這個天體被認為是古老星系合併後所遺留下的潮汐尾巴，並被位於遙遠螺旋星系 IC 2497 中的類星體爆發所照亮及離子化。自從 2007 年，由荷蘭教師 Hanny van Arkel 在 Galaxy Zoo 項目中參與時發現這一驚人天體後，隨之產生的八個神秘綠色天體也相繼被發現。這些天體均由哈伯太空望遠鏡拍攝，每一個都出現在活躍星系的附近。這些物體遠離其相關星系，可能都是類星體活動的回聲，僅在類星體爆發的光芒到達它們時被照亮，並在類星體爆發消失幾萬年後最終逐漸消失。 當然，像我們的銀河系與仙女座星系即將合併那樣的星系合併，也可能引發類星體的誕生，從而照亮未來的 Hanny’s Voorwerp。
#HannysVoorwerp #CosmicMystery #GalaxyZoo #Quasar #SpaceDiscovery #HubbleSpaceTelescope #Astrophysics #CosmicWonder #AstronomyLovers #GalacticMerger #IonizedOxygen #SpaceExploration
來源:NASA每日圖片
