One-Armed Spiral Galaxy NGC 4725

Copyright:Martin Pugh

原文:
While most spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have two or more spiral arms, NGC 4725 has only one. In this sharp color composite image, the solo spira mirabilis seems to wind from a prominent ring of bluish, newborn star clusters and red tinted star forming regions. The odd galaxy also sports obscuring dust lanes a yellowish central bar structure composed of an older population of stars. NGC 4725 is over 100 thousand light-years across and lies 41 million light-years away in the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. Computer simulations of the formation of single spiral arms suggest that they can be either leading or trailing arms with respect to a galaxy’s overall rotation. Also included in the frame, sporting a noticably more traditional spiral galaxy look, is a more distant background galaxy.
中文翻譯:
在眾多漩渦星系中，包括我們的銀河系，多數都有兩條或更多的漩渦臂，但NGC 4725卻只有一條。在這張銳利的彩色合成圖像中，這條獨特的spiral arm似乎由一個顯眼的藍色新生恆星團和紅色星際形成區域所圍繞。這個奇特的星系還擁有遮擋的塵埃帶，以及由較老恆星組成的黃色中央棒結構。NGC 4725的直徑超過10萬光年，距離地球約4100萬光年，位於星座Coma Berenices中。對於單一漩渦臂的形成，計算機模擬表明，這些臂可以是相對於星系整體旋轉的前導臂或後驅臂。此外，在畫面中，還有一個顯著更傳統漩渦星系的遠方背景星系。

#NGC4725 #螺旋星系 #星際形成 #天文學 #銀河系 #宇宙奇觀 #ComaBerenices #星系探索 #天文攝影

來源:NASA每日圖片