吃豆子星雲中的恆星形成
Star Formation in the Pacman Nebula
來源：Juan Montilla
(AAE)｜發表日期：2025-03-26
你會認為吃豆人星雲正在吞噬恆星，但實際上它正在形成恆星。在星雲內部，一個星團中年輕而巨大的恆星正在為無處不在的星雲光芒提供能量。在 NGC 281 的特寫畫像中，隱約可見的醒目形狀是雕刻而成的塵埃柱和稠密的 Bok 球狀剪影，它們受到來自熾熱星團恆星的強烈高能風和輻射的侵蝕。如果它們能夠存活足夠長的時間，這些塵埃結構也可能成為未來恆星形成的場所。NGC 281 因其整體形狀而被戲稱為 "吃豆人星雲"，它位於仙后座約 1 萬光年之外。這張清晰的合成影像是 2024 年中期在西班牙透過窄帶濾光片拍攝的。它結合了星雲中氫原子和氧原子的輻射，合成了紅色、綠色和藍色。在 NGC 281 的估計距離上，該場景的跨度遠遠超過 80 光年。
原文：You'd think the Pacman Nebula would be eating stars, but actually it is forming them. Within the nebula, a cluster's young, massive stars are powering the pervasive nebular glow. The eye-catching shapes looming in the featured portrait of NGC 281 are sculpted dusty columns and dense Bok globules seen in silhouette, eroded by intense, energetic winds and radiation from the hot cluster stars. If they survive long enough, the dusty structures could also be sites of future star formation. Playfully called the Pacman Nebula because of its overall shape, NGC 281 is about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp composite image was made through narrow-band filters in Spain in mid 2024. It combines emissions from the nebula's hydrogen and oxygen atoms to synthesize red, green, and blue colors. The scene spans well over 80 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 281.
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