2026年1月21日
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Janice Lee (NOIRLab) – Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Explanation: A mere 56 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is an enormous barred spiral galaxy about 200,000 light-years in diameter. That’s twice the size of our own barred spiral Milky Way. This sharp image from the James Webb Space Telescope‘s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals stunning details of this magnificent spiral in infrared light. Webb’s field of view stretches about 60,000 light-years across NGC 1365, exploring the galaxy’s core and bright newborn star clusters. The intricate network of dusty filaments and bubbles is created by young stars along spiral arms winding from the galaxy’s central bar. Astronomers suspect the gravitational field of NGC 1365’s bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy’s evolution, funneling gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the active galaxy’s central, supermassive black hole.
Tomorrow’s picture: the light, the dark, and the dusty
韦伯太空望远镜拍摄的棒旋星系NGC 1365
影像提供: NASA, ESA, CSA, Janice Lee (NOIRLab) – 影像处理: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
说明: 距离我们约5,600万光年、位于南天球的天炉座方向的NGC 1365，是一个巨大的棒旋星系，直径约20万光年，几乎是我们所处的棒旋星系──银河系──的两倍大！这张由詹姆斯・韦伯太空望远镜的中红外线仪器（Mid-Infrared Instrument, MIRI）所拍摄的高解析影像，以红外线波段呈现出该棒旋星系中令人惊叹的细节。韦伯望远镜的视场横跨NGC 1365约60,000光年的范围，深入探测其星系核心以及明亮的新生恒星团。沿着由星系中央棒状结构向外延伸、盘旋而出的旋臂，年轻恒星所塑造出的复杂尘埃丝状结构与气泡交织成一张精细的网络。天文学家推测，NGC 1365的棒状结构所产生的重力场在星系演化中扮演关键角色，它能将气体与尘埃有效导引至剧烈的造星漩涡，并最终为星系中心的超大质量黑洞提供物质来源。
