Copyright:
Peter Tuthill
(Sydney U.)
& James Lloyd (Cornell)
原文:
What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922, however, appears to be embedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The featured image combines infrared exposures from the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California, and the Keck-2 Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A leading progenitor hypothesis for the square nebula is that the central star or stars somehow expelled cones of gas during a late developmental stage. For MWC 922, these cones happen to incorporate nearly right angles and be visible from the sides. Supporting evidence for the cone hypothesis includes radial spokes in the image that might run along the cone walls. Researchers speculate that the cones viewed from another angle would appear similar to the gigantic rings of supernova 1987A, possibly indicating that a star in MWC 922 might one day itself explode in a similar supernova.
中文翻譯:
在宇宙中，為什麼某些星雲會呈現方形的形狀？對於這個問題，科學界仍然沒有定論。但MWC 922這個熱星系統恰好嵌在一個具有此種形狀的星雲中。這幅圖片結合了來自加州的哈雷望遠鏡和夏威夷的凱克二號望遠鏡的紅外線曝光。
對於這個方形星雲的主要假設是，中央的恆星或恆星系統在晚期發展階段以某種方式噴發出氣體圓錐。對於MWC 922來說，這些氣體圓錐恰好形成幾乎直角並且從側面可見。支持圓錐假設的證據包括圖像中的徑向輻條，可能沿著圓錐的牆面延伸。研究人員推測，從其他角度觀察這些圓錐，可能會看到類似於超新星1987A的巨大環形結構，這可能暗示MWC 922中的恆星未來有可能以類似的超新星形式爆炸。
#星雲 #MWC922 #宇宙奧秘 #超新星 #天文學 #科學探索 #方形星雲 #紅外線觀測 #星系科學 #天文攝影
來源:NASA每日圖片
