Copyright:Katelyn Beecroft
中文翻譯:
在遙遠的星空中，有一個神秘而迷人的生物，叫做水母星雲。它就在兩顆明亮的星星，Mu 和 Eta Geminorum的旁邊，形成了一幅壯觀的畫面。水母星雲就像一個流動的彩色雲彩，右邊偏中央處有一條明亮的彎曲線，看起來就像一隻水母的觸手一樣。這個宇宙水母其實是從一顆龐大的星星爆炸後留下來的，它的名字叫 IC 443。這次爆炸發生在超過 30,000 年前，當時發出的光芒穿越了遙遠的空間，第一次到達了地球。水母星雲還藏著一顆特別的星星，那是一顆中子星，這是星星心臟塌縮後的超密集殘骸。左上角是一片叫做 Sharpless 249 的發射星雲，整個水母星雲距離我們約有 5,000 光年遠。就算這麼遠，這幅圖片的範圍也大約有 300 光年那麼寬呢！
原文:
Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring telescopic field of view. Floating in the interstellar sea, the nebula is anchored right and left by two bright stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, at the foot of the celestial twins. The Jellyfish Nebula itself is right of center, seen as a brighter arcing ridge of emission with dangling tentacles. In fact, this cosmic jellyfish is part of bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443, the expanding debris cloud from a massive star that exploded. Light from the explosion first reached planet Earth over 30,000 years ago. Like its cousin in astrophysical waters the Crab Nebula supernova remnant, the Jellyfish Nebula is known to harbor a neutron star, the ultradense remnant of the collapsed stellar core. An emission nebula cataloged as Sharpless 249 fills the field at the upper left. The Jellyfish Nebula is about 5,000 light-years away. At that distance, this image would be about 300 light-years across.
來源:NASA每日圖片
