2025年6月24日
In the Center of Spiral Galaxy M61
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, ESO; Processing & Copyright:
Robert Gendler
Explanation: Is there a spiral galaxy in the center of this spiral galaxy? Sort of. Image data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory, and smaller telescopes on planet Earth are combined in this detailed portrait of face-on spiral galaxy Messier 61 (M61) and its bright center. A mere 55 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, M61 is also known as NGC 4303. It’s considered to be an example of a barred spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way. Like other spiral galaxies, M61 also features sweeping spiral arms, cosmic dust lanes, pinkish star forming regions, and young blue star clusters. Its core houses an active supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright nuclear spiral — infalling star-forming gas that itself looks like a separate spiral galaxy.
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Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space and time
螺旋星系M61的中心
影像提供: NASA, ESA, Hubble, ESO; 影像处理与版权：Robert Gendler
说明: 这个螺旋星系的中心，是否还有另一个螺旋星系？乍看像是如此。这幅呈现正向螺旋星系M61中心区的细致影像，整合了来自哈勃太空望远镜、欧洲南方天文台、及其他地面较小型望远镜的影像数据。亦名为NGC 4303、身为离我们约5千5百万年光年远的室女座星系团之成员的M61，咸认外观上是和银河系很相似的棒旋星系。在M61之内，可见到许多螺旋星系共有的特征，诸如蜿蜒的螺旋臂、尘埃带、粉红的恒星形成区、及蓝色的年轻星团。其中心更藏着超大质量黑洞，而随着周围正在形成恒星的气体坠向黑洞，所形成的明亮螺旋迹线酷以另一个螺旋星系。
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明日的图片: pixels in space and time
