Copyright:
Daniel Stern
中文翻譯:
在遙遠的宇宙中，有一個特別的星系叫做NGC 1512。它有三個美麗的環，比起其他星系來說，這是非常罕見的！首先，靠近NGC 1512中心的環叫做核環，這裡有很多新出生的星星，燦爛地閃耀著光輝。接著是第二個環，名叫內環，這個環有著紅色和藍色的星星和塵埃，與一條橫穿星系的星星棒相連。最後，最外面的環像是個圓圓的漩渦，我們可以稱它為外環，裡面點綴著許多明亮的藍色星團。科學家們認為這些環的形狀是因為NGC 1512自身的引力在慢慢地改變，這個過程我們稱為世代演化。最近，這幅美麗的照片是從智利的Deep Sky Chile天文望遠鏡拍攝的。
原文:
Most galaxies don’t have any rings — why does this galaxy have three? To begin, a ring that’s near NGC 1512’s center — and so hard to see here — is the nuclear ring which glows brightly with recently formed stars. Next out is a ring of stars and dust appearing both red and blue, called, counter-intuitively, the inner ring. This inner ring connects ends of a diffuse central bar of stars that runs horizontally across the galaxy. Farthest out in this wide field image is a ragged structure that might be considered an outer ring. This outer ring appears spiral-like and is dotted with clusters of bright blue stars. All these ring structures are thought to be affected by NGC 1512’s own gravitational asymmetries in a drawn-out process called secular evolution. The featured image was captured last month from a telescope at Deep Sky Chile in Chile.
來源:NASA每日圖片
