Copyright:Dane Vetter
中文翻譯:
在遙遠的宇宙中，有一個叫做IC 2574的小星系。這個小星系雖然不如大星系那樣華麗，但它裡面卻有著很多年輕的星星在閃耀！IC 2574的特別之處在於，它的某些地方發出紅色的光，像是在告訴我們：這裡有很多星星正在誕生呢！這些星星會把氣體推送到空中，像是在跳舞，然後又開始了新的星星誕生，真是太神奇了！IC 2574距離我們有1200萬光年遠，它是M81星系群的一部分，位於北天的熊座裡。這個小小的宇宙島被美國天文學家Edwin Coddington在1898年發現，大家都叫它Coddington’s Nebula，像是一個隱藏的小寶藏一樣，直徑約有5萬光年哦！
原文:
Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In fact, dwarf galaxy IC 2574 shows clear evidence of intense star forming activity in its telltale reddish regions of glowing hydrogen gas. Just as in spiral galaxies, the turbulent star-forming regions in IC 2574 are churned by stellar winds and supernova explosions spewing material into the galaxy’s interstellar medium and triggering further star formation. A mere 12 million light-years distant, IC 2574 is part of the M81 group of galaxies, seen toward the northern constellation Ursa Major. Also known as Coddington’s Nebula, the faint but intriguing island universe is about 50,000 light-years across, discovered by American astronomer Edwin Coddington in 1898.
來源:NASA每日圖片
