Astronomy Picture of the Day——大麦哲伦星系

The Large Cloud of Magellan

Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

Explanation: The 16th century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth. As a result, two fuzzy cloud-like objects easily visible to southern hemisphere skygazers are known as the Clouds of Magellan, now understood to be satellite galaxies of our much larger, spiral Milky Way galaxy. About 160,000 light-years distant in the constellation Dorado, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is seen here in a remarkably deep, colorful, image. Spanning about 15,000 light-years or so, it is the most massive of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies and is the home of the closest supernova in modern times, SN 1987A. The prominent patch below center is 30 Doradus, also known as the magnificent Tarantula Nebula, a giant star-forming region about 1,000 light-years across.

大麦哲伦星系

16世纪，葡萄牙航海家麦哲伦在第一次环球航行时，他有充裕的时间来研究南方的天空。南半球的天文观测者很容易就能看到的两个云雾状模糊天体，它们被称为麦哲伦星系，而现在，它们被认为是银河系的伴星系。大麦哲伦星系位于剑鱼座，距离地球约16万光年，在这幅深空彩色影像中很容易看到它。这个跨度约15,000光年的星系是银河系最大的伴星系，也是近代发现的距离地球最近的超新星SN 1987A的家园。图像中心下方的光斑是剑鱼座30，也被称为蜘蛛星云，它是一个跨度约1千光年的巨大恒星形成区。

高清原图地址：

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1909/Magellano22detail22_1980enan11curves11.jpg

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