Copyright:
Daniel Stern
中文翻譯:
在天空中，有一個非常著名的星雲叫做Horsehead Nebula（馬頭星雲）。在圖片的右邊，你會看到一個橙色的發射星雲，而馬頭星雲則像一個黑色的凹陷，這就是為什麼它叫馬頭的原因。它其實是一片不透明的塵埃雲，遮擋了明亮的發射星雲。就像地球上的雲一樣，這片宇宙中的雲偶然地形成了一個可以認出的形狀。經過幾千年以後，雲的運動會改變它的外觀。發射星雲的橙色是因為電子和質子重新結合形成氫原子。圖片的左下方是Flame Nebula（火焰星雲），它也是一個橙色的星雲，裡面有許多複雜的黑色塵埃絲線。這些星雲在宇宙中閃耀著，像魔法一樣吸引著我們的目光！
原文:
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the orange emission nebula at the far right of the featured picture. The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud that lies in front of the bright emission nebula. Like clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance. After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud will surely alter its appearance. The emission nebula’s orange color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form hydrogen atoms. Toward the lower left of the image is the Flame Nebula, an orange-tinged nebula that also contains intricate filaments of dark dust.
來源:NASA每日圖片
