Copyright:Francesco Antonucci
中文翻譯:
小朋友，你知道我們的太陽會怎樣嗎？很可能會變成一顆星雲喔！這一切可以追溯到1764年，當時的天文學家查理斯·梅西耶正在收集一些星星的清單。梅西耶清單中的第27個物件，現在我們叫它M27或稱作哑鈴星雲（Dumbbell Nebula），是一種行星星雲，它可是天空中最亮的幾個行星星雲之一，甚至用雙筒望遠鏡就能看到，方向是在狐狸座（Vulpecula）那裡。從M27到我們這裡的光需要大約1000年呢！M27在圖片中看起來色彩繽紛，紅色是氫氣，藍色是氧氣。科學家們現在已經知道，六十億年後，我們的太陽會把外層的氣體拋掉，形成像M27那樣的行星星雲，剩下的部分會變成一顆非常熱的白矮星。雖然梅西耶當時還無法理解星雲的科學原理，但我們知道，至今仍有很多有關星雲的奧秘值得探索，像是它們那複雜的形狀是怎麼形成的呢？
原文:
Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun’s future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier’s list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulas on the sky and visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors enhanced by red for hydrogen and blue for oxygen. We now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their intricate shapes are created.
來源:NASA每日圖片
