Copyright:Peter Bresseler
中文翻譯:
在宇宙的深處，有一個小小的、黑暗的星雲，它雖然看起來獨孤，但其實它就在一片熱鬧的星空中。這片神秘的雲朵距離我們有七千光年遠，裡面充滿了發光的氣體和一群年輕的星星，這就是M16或稱為Eagle Nebula。哈勃望遠鏡拍攝的Eagle Nebula中，有著著名的星星誕生區域，叫做創造之柱，這些高高的結構長達4到5光年。但這個小小的黑暗星雲，名字叫做Bok globule，實際上只有一小部分光年那麼大。它在M16廣闊的背景光芒中，像是一個安靜的小黑影。這些Bok globule是一種小型的星際雲，由冷冷的分子氣體和遮擋的塵埃組成，裡面能夠形成新星星，這些星星在它們密集、正在崩潰的核心裡誕生。
原文:
A small, dark, nebula looks isolated near the center of this telescopic close-up. The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudlet lies within a relatively crowded region of space though. About 7,000 light-years distant and filled with glowing gas and an embedded cluster of young stars, the region is known as M16 or the Eagle Nebula. Hubble’s iconic images of the Eagle Nebula include the famous star-forming Pillars of Creation, towering structures of interstellar gas and dust 4 to 5 light-years long. But this small dark nebula, known to some as a Bok globule, is a fraction of a light-year across. The Bok globule stands out in silhouette against the expansive background of M16’s diffuse glow. Found scattered within emission nebulae and star clusters, Bok globules are small interstellar clouds of cold molecular gas and obscuring dust that also form stars within their dense, collapsing cores.
來源:NASA每日圖片
