蟹狀星雲
: U- j7 l! M) q ?; B
Composite Crab
& N8 v+ j3 q" g/ Z' u/ x. W; H* s6 K( @/ n2 N# |! g
4 ?! C1 q N" m2 ^8 I9 J2 |, I% H8 ^; I% Z |
Credit: NASA - X-ray: CXC, J.Hester (ASU) et al.;
t+ {7 K, N* D- g3 P! m+ R
Optical: ESA, J.Hester and A.Loll (ASU); Infrared: JPL-Caltech, R.Gehrz (U. Minn)
9 x1 g8 U* N/ w* B
, g G2 A+ k, l4 n) aExplanation:
9 W( K. J/ o( m+ ]- E8 Y& J 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. 7 R. p) g- T& D. I" c* D* t
) W, J) F$ A: v說明:9 M$ q$ y/ h7 ?" I, e3 |
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。
- ^! o( ~; }0 A$ \- w
' F" H* u# j; E2 _! s4 r/ P/ Y資料來源: Scientific American
0 e4 o, L9 w1 b4 b+ N Department of Physics, NCKU
