星團 IC 348 ,來自韋伯
Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb

發表日期:2024-01-15
有時,最難看到的恆星才是最有趣的。IC 348 是一個年輕的星團,它照亮了周圍的絲狀塵埃。 在韋伯太空望遠鏡最近釋出的這張紅外影像中,這些纏繞成串的塵埃呈現粉紅色。在可見光下,這些塵埃主要反射藍光,使周圍的物質呈現出我們熟悉的反射星雲的藍色。 除了明亮的恆星之外,IC 348 中還發現了幾個冷色調的天體,它們之所以可見,是因為它們在紅外線下發出的光更亮。 這些天體被假定為低質量的褐矮星。 這方面的證據包括探測到了一種不明大氣化學物質,很可能是一種碳氫化合物,以前在土星的大氣中看到過。這些天體的質量似乎略大於已知行星,只比木星大幾倍。 這些都表明,這個年輕的星團含有一些值得注意的東西--年輕的行星質量褐矮星,它們自由地漂浮著,不圍繞任何其他恆星執行。
原文:Sometimes, it's the stars that are the hardest to see that are the most interesting. IC 348 is a young star cluster that illuminates surrounding filamentary dust. The stringy and winding dust appears pink in this recently released infrared image from the Webb Space Telescope. In visible light, this dust reflects mostly blue light, giving the surrounding material the familiar blue hue of a reflection nebula. Besides bright stars, several cool objects have been located in IC 348, visible because they glow brighter in infrared light. These objects are hypothesized to be low mass brown dwarfs. Evidence for this includes the detection of an unidentified atmospheric chemical, likely a hydrocarbon, seen previously in the atmosphere of Saturn. These objects appear to have masses slightly greater than known planets, only a few times greater than Jupiter. Together, these indicate that this young star cluster contains something noteworthy -- young planet-mass brown dwarfs that float free, not orbiting any other star.
※ 本文由萌芽機器人自動轉貼自每日一天文圖(Astronomy Picture of the Day,APOD),原文為英文,正體中文是透過 DeepL 翻譯及 OpenCC 進行自動處理,內容僅供參考,若有任何錯誤之處還請見諒!
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