Copyright:
原文:
The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star’s life occurs as its outer layers are ejected – its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one above. Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the HST images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process that are helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas.
中文翻譯:
沙漏形狀的行星狀星雲中央恆星的時間正在流逝。隨著核燃料的耗盡，這個短暫而壯觀的太陽型恆星生命最後階段發生，外層被拋棄，其核心演變為一顆逐漸冷卻、逐漸暗淡的白矮星。在1995年，天文學家使用哈伯太空望遠鏡（HST）拍攝了一系列行星狀星雲的影像，包括上述星雲。這裏，織造出精緻的彩色發光氣體環（氮-紅、氫-綠、氧-藍）勾勒出沙漏的稀薄邊界。哈伯太空望遠鏡影像所展現的前所未有的清晰度揭示了星雲拋棄過程中的驚人細節，幫助解開行星狀星雲複雜形狀和對稱性之謎。
#行星狀星雲 #白矮星 #哈伯太空望遠鏡 #宇宙奧秘 #天文學探索 #太陽系 #星際之美 #天文照片 #科學發現
來源:NASA每日圖片
