蟹狀星雲
1 x! O& Q' c. r* v1 m' ?: cComposite Crab
& |/ x; [8 N" W ` N" F9 u7 n1 I+ S; J& S% n0 I c* V3 ?
! e8 ?3 X; H; Y8 R' @: m7 P7 p0 U7 g0 U7 m3 c* L6 ~
Credit: NASA - X-ray: CXC, J.Hester (ASU) et al.;
9 [( k" F" K, N0 I7 g- K! u
Optical: ESA, J.Hester and A.Loll (ASU); Infrared: JPL-Caltech, R.Gehrz (U. Minn)
( Y' m2 d6 X; I6 b, T
6 E* V# [# G& u1 W2 C4 |% e* {$ D
Explanation: * S( f' T2 V0 w# \
The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on Charles Messier's famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the Crab is now known to be a supernova remnant, expanding debris from the death explosion of a massive star. This intriguing false-color image combines data from space-based observatories, Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer, to explore the debris cloud in x-rays (blue-purple), optical (green), and infrared (red) light. One of the most exotic objects known to modern astronomers, the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star spinning 30 times a second, is the bright spot near picture center. Like a cosmic dynamo, this collapsed remnant of the stellar core powers the Crab's emission across the electromagnetic spectrum. Spanning about 12 light-years, the Crab Nebula is 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus.
+ [$ c" c( C1 ?$ O9 y$ k
9 N! g' f/ Q' S1 q9 @. b- o. Q5 |& e說明:4 {' s, E2 m! V( H* c' }" k
蟹狀星雲的編錄是M1，也就是梅西葉著名的「非彗星型錄」的第一個天體。現在我們知道蟹狀星雲是一個超新星遺骸--大質量恆星死亡爆炸所產生的擴張碎片雲。這幅有趣的假色影像，組合了來自錢卓拉、哈伯和史匹哲等太空天文望遠鏡的數據，在X射線 (藍-紫)、可見光 (綠)和紅外光 (紅)波段探索這團宇宙碎片雲。星雲中心附近的亮斑是蟹狀星雲波霎，為一顆每轉自轉30次的中子星，是現代天文學家公認最奇特的天體之一。就像一個宇宙級的發電機，這顆恆星核崩塌所產生的遺骸，是蟹狀星雲發出各種電磁波段輻射的能量源。蟹狀星雲位在金牛座內，離我們約有6,500光年遠，大小約有12光年。
3 G3 L6 c1 y; p/ R2 B6 ]* M2 C" F- q( l7 t n
資料來源: Scientific American! r% ]9 I7 c1 x2 H d0 u# D) ~) U
Department of Physics, NCKU
