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原文:
Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for earth-based astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad disk. But this Hubble Space Telescope field of view spans about 7,000 light-years or so across M94’s central region. The sharp close-up examines the galaxy’s compact, bright nucleus and prominent inner dust lanes, surrounded by a remarkable bluish ring of young, massive stars. The massive stars in the ring are all likely less than 10 million years old, indicating the galaxy experienced a well-defined era of rapid star formation. As a result, while the small, bright nucleus is typical of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, M94 is also known as a starburst galaxy. Because M94 is relatively nearby, astronomers can explore in detail reasons for the galaxy’s burst of star formation.
中文翻譯:
🌌 美麗的島嶼宇宙—Messier 94，距離地球僅1500萬光年，位於獵犬座 (Canes Venatici) 的北部。作為天文學家熱門的觀測目標，這個面對面的螺旋星系約有3萬光年寬，螺旋臂在其廣闊的盤面外圍延展。透過哈勃太空望遠鏡的觀測視野，這幅圖像展現了M94中心區域約7000光年寬的詳細內容。
這幅清晰的特寫檢視了星系明亮且緊湊的核心，以及顯著的內部塵埃帶，周圍包圍著一圈引人注目的藍色年輕巨大恆星。這些位於環帶中的巨星年齡都不超過1000萬年，表明這個星系經歷了一個明確的快速恆星形成時期。因此，儘管小而明亮的核心在活躍星系 (Seyfert) 類別中是典型的，但M94也被稱為星暴星系 (starburst galaxy)。由於M94相對接近，天文學家能夠詳細探索星系的恆星形成爆發原因。
#Messier94 #HubbleSpaceTelescope #星系 #天文學 #恆星形成 #星暴星系 #CanesVenatici #太空探索 #宇宙奧秘
來源:NASA每日圖片
