2018年，一个国际研究团队使用美国航空航天局（NASA）/欧洲空间局（ESA）的哈勃空间望远镜（Hubble Space Telescope）和其他几个天文台的数据，首次发现了一个缺失大部分暗物质的星系。这个星系位于银河系的邻居鲸鱼座（Cetus）之中，名为NGC1052-DF2，距离我们4500万光年。 NGC 1052-DF2星系的这一奇怪发现，令天文学家倍感意外，因为依据现有的理解，暗物质是当前星系形成和演化模型中的关键组成部分。实际上，如果没有暗物质的存在，原初气团将缺乏足够的引力来开始它的塌陷过程，也就无法并形成新的星系。 在此一年之后，研究人员又发现了另一个缺失暗物质的星系，NG […]
2020年12月05日 Mons Rumker in the Ocean of Storms Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Yves Letellier Explanation: Mons Rumker, a 70 kilometer wide complex of volcanic domes, rises some 1100 meters above the vast, smooth lunar mare known as Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms. Daylight came to the
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 十二月的天空会发生什么？一场流星雨，一场木星和土星之间的罕见的近距离接触，还有冬至。 Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 12月带来了每年最可靠的流星雨之一，也是2020年最好的流星雨之一——双子座流星雨。这场流星雨从12月4日到17日非常活跃，因为地球在小行星法厄同3200轨道上留下的尘埃碎片的痕迹中穿行。这可能是一颗被烧毁的彗星。 双子座流星雨大多数年份都能产生大量的流星，但今年的流星雨更甚。因为流星雨的高峰期正好赶上新月的到来，因此天空变得更暗，没有月光来干扰较暗的流星，双子座流星雨在12月13日夜间至14日早晨达到高峰，前
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Expedition 64 astronaut Soichi Noguchi relaxes at the end of the work day inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station’s “window to the world.” The orbiting lab was flying above the South Pacific at the time this ph
2020年12月04日 Curly Spiral Galaxy M63 Image Credit & Copyright: Fabian Neyer, Rainer Spani Collaboration Credit: I.D. Karachentsev, F. Neyer, R. Spani, T. Zilch Explanation: A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal con
Lying inside our home galaxy, the Milky Way, this Herbig–Haro object is a turbulent birthing ground for new stars in a region known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex, located 1,350 light-years away. Herbig–Haro (HH) objects are bright patches of nebulosity associated with newborn stars that for
2020年12月03日 The Antennae Galaxies in Collision Image Credit: ESA/Hubble NASA Explanation: Sixty million light-years away toward the southerly constellation Corvus, these two large galaxies are colliding. The cosmic train wreck captured in stunning detail in this Hubble Space Telescope snapshot takes
The solar system might be a lot hairier than we thought. This illustration shows Earth surrounded by theoretical filaments of dark matter called “hairs.” Dark matter is an invisible, mysterious substance that makes up about 27 percent of all matter and energy in the universe. The regular
2020年12月02日 Eye of Moon Image Credit & Copyright: Zachery Cooley Explanation: Who’s watching who? The featured image of the Moon through a gap in a wall of rock may appear like a giant eye looking back at you. Although, in late October, it took only a single exposure to capture this visua
Carol “Bird Song” Harrison is a a quality assurance specialist (QAS) working in the Mission Assurance Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center. She has degrees in mechanical technology and mechanical engineering. After graduating from the NASA Apprentice Program in 1992, she worked
