2025年12月4日
Galaxies in the Furnace
Image Credit & Copyright: Simone Curzi and the ShaRA Team
Explanation: An example of violence on a cosmic scale, enormous elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 lies about 75 million light-years away toward Fornax, the southern constellation of the Furnace. Investigating the startling sight, astronomers suspect the giant galaxy of colliding with smaller neighbor NGC 1317 seen just right of the large galaxy’s center, producing far flung star streams in loops and shells. Light from their close encounter would have reached Earth some 100 million years ago. In the sharp telescopic image, the central regions of NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 appear separated by over 100,000 light-years. Complex dust lanes visible within also indicate that NGC 1316 is itself the result of a merger of galaxies in the distant past. Found on the outskirts of the Fornax galaxy cluster, NGC 1316 is known as Fornax A. One of the visually brightest of the Fornax cluster galaxies it is one of the strongest and largest celestial radio sources with radio emission extending well beyond this one degree wide field-of-view.
Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space
熔炉中的星系
影像提供与版权: Simone Curzi and the ShaRA Team
说明: 一个宇宙尺度上的暴力事件，巨大的椭圆星系NGC 1316，位于距离地球约7500万光年的南天球上之火炉星座天炉座方向，正朝着这个方向发展。天文学家透过研究其起源，推测这个巨型星系可能与位于其中心右侧的较小邻居NGC 1317发生碰撞，从而形成了遥远的星系环和恒星壳层。它们近距离接触产生的光大约在1亿年前到达地球。在清晰的望远镜影像中，NGC 1316和NGC 1317的中心区域相隔超过10万光年。星系内部可见的复杂尘埃带也显示，NGC 1316本身就是遥远过往星系合并的结果。NGC 1316位于天炉座星系团边缘，又称为天炉座A。它是天炉座星系团中亮度最高的星系之一，也是最强、最大的天体电波源之一，其电波辐射范围远远超出这1度宽的视野。
明日的图片: pixels in space
