2011年3月15日 星期二

NASA拍到神秘的「宇宙黑色裂縫」

2010年六月份，NASA天文學家近日使用斯皮策紅外天文望遠鏡在距離地球11000光年外的人馬座星座中拍攝到一組「宇宙黑色裂縫」照片。

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what astronomers are referring to as a "snake" (upper left) and its surrounding stormy environment. The sinuous object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say the "snake's belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming. <br /><br /><br />The galactic creepy crawler to the right of the snake is another thick cloud core, in which additional burgeoning massive stars might be lurking. The colorful regions below the two cloud cores are less dense cloud material, in which dust has been heated by starlight and glows with infrared light. Yellow and orange dots throughout the image are monstrous developing stars; the red star on the "belly" of the snake is 20 to 50 times as massive as our sun. The blue dots are foreground stars. <br /><br />The red ball at the bottom left is a "supernova remnant," the remains of massive star that died in a fiery blast. Astronomers speculate that radiation and winds from the star before it died, in addition to a shock wave created when it exploded, might have played a role in creating the snake.<br /><br />Spitzer was able to spot the two black cloud cores using its heat-seeking infrared vision. The objects are hiding in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy, invisible to optical telescopes. Because their heat, or infrared light, can sneak through the dust, they first showed up in infrared images from past missions. The cloud cores are so thick with dust that if you were to somehow transport yourself into the middle of them, you would see nothing but black, not even a star in the sky. Now, that's spooky!<br /><br />Spitzer's new view of the region provides the best look yet at the massive embryonic stars hiding inside the snake. Astronomers say these observations will ultimately help them better understand how massive stars form. By studying the clustering and range of masses of the stellar embryos, they hope to determine if the
這個蜿蜒的「黑色裂縫」是由宇宙中的灰塵所形成，而這條蜿蜒「黑色裂縫」的面積足有數十個太陽系大。不但如此，在這個裂縫中極有可能在孕育著新星體。
NASA斯皮策科學中心的天文學家肖恩·凱利(Sean Carey)博士稱「這條黑色裂縫中的宇宙灰塵為新星的誕生提供了絕佳的大環境，這些尚處于孕育狀態的星還沒有儲存到足夠的熱量來破開裂縫云層。」

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