三條梅龍背後的銀河
Milky Way Behind Three Merlons
來源：Donato Lioce;
Text: Natalia Lewandowska
(SUNY Oswego)｜發表日期：2024-08-07
在一些人看來，它們就像城垛，在這裡保護我們免受銀河中心的侵襲。梅隆三峰也被稱為拉瓦雷多三峰，之所以巍然屹立，是因為它們是由緻密的白雲岩構成的，與周圍較軟的岩石相比，白雲岩能更好地抵禦侵蝕。它們形成於大約 2 . 5 億年前，因此與地球上一次生命大滅絕的年代相當。一個主要的假設是，這次生物大滅絕是由一顆直徑約 10 公里、比珠穆朗瑪峰還大的小行星撞擊地球引發的。幾個世紀以來，人類一直在仰望銀河系和銀河系以外的星空，因此這些位於塞克斯滕多洛米蒂山脈的類似戰場的地貌成為當前和古代天文學家的熱門去處。
原文：To some, they look like battlements, here protecting us against the center of the Milky Way. The Three Merlons, also called the Three Peaks of Lavaredo, stand tall today because they are made of dense dolomite rock which has better resisted erosion than surrounding softer rock. They formed about 250 million years ago and so are comparable in age with one of the great extinctions of life on Earth. A leading hypothesis is that this great extinction was triggered by an asteroid about 10-km across, larger in size than Mount Everest, impacting the Earth. Humans have gazed up at the stars in the Milky Way and beyond for centuries, making these battlefield-like formations, based in the Sexten Dolomites, a popular place for current and ancient astronomers.
※ 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！
關於每日一天文圖：每日一天文圖網站是美國國家航空暨太空總署與密西根理工大學提供的服務，網站每天提供一張影像或圖片，並由天文學家撰寫扼要說明其特別之處。