Copyright:
原文:
A mere 2.5 million light-years away the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, really is just next door as large galaxies go. So close and spanning some 260,000 light-years, it took 11 different image fields from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite’s telescope to produce this gorgeous portrait of the spiral galaxy in ultraviolet light. While its spiral arms stand out in visible light images of Andromeda, the arms look more like rings in the GALEX ultraviolet view, a view dominated by the energetic light from hot, young, massive stars. As sites of intense star formation, the rings have been interpreted as evidence Andromeda collided with its smaller neighboring elliptical galaxy M32 more than 200 million years ago. The large Andromeda galaxy and our own Milky Way are the most massive members of the local galaxy group.
中文翻譯:
在距離地球僅2.5百萬光年的位置，仙女座星系（Andromeda Galaxy），又稱作M31，確實是大型星系中最接近我們的「鄰居」。這個星系的直徑約有260,000光年，透過銀河演化觀測衛星（Galaxy Evolution Explorer, GALEX）的望遠鏡拍攝了11個不同的影像畫幅，才得以呈現出這幅壯麗的紫外線光肖像。
在可見光影像中，仙女座的螺旋臂明顯可見，而在GALEX的紫外線視角下，這些臂膀看起來更像是圍繞的環，這一景象主要是由於來自於熱而年輕的大質量恆星所發出的能量光輝。作為強烈星際星形成的地點，這些環狀結構被解讀為仙女座星系在約2億年前與鄰近的更小的椭圆星系M32發生了碰撞的證據。
大仙女座星系和我們的銀河系（Milky Way）是本地星系團中質量最龐大的成員。
#仙女座星系 #AndromedaGalaxy #宇宙探索 #銀河系 #Galaxies #天文學 #StarFormation #太空知識
來源:NASA每日圖片
