X-raying a Supernova Factory
| Each of the 14,370 pinpricks of light in this x-ray image is a hot, young star in the Carina Nebula—a giant cloud of gas and dust some 7500 light-years from Earth where new stars are being born. Obtained by NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, the new mosaic image was presented today at the summer meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Boston. Chandra doubled the number of massive stars that are known in the nebula, which is only a few million years old. Such stars end their brief lives in titanic supernova explosions, so supernovae in Carina must also be twice as frequent as had been assumed until now—and the same might be true for other star-forming regions in our galaxy. Moreover, Chandra has found six neutron stars—the hot, dense remains of supernova explosions—in the stellar nursery. So the celestial fireworks must have already begun, and the next star could detonate tomorrow. |
在这张X光照片上的14,370个光点中，每个光点都是船底座星云中一颗年轻的恒星。船底座星云是一片巨大的气体和尘埃云团，那里正在诞生新恒星，距离地球7,500光年。这张新的拼接图像是由美国国家航空航天管理局的轨道望远镜——钱德拉X射线望远镜拍摄的，今天这张图像呈现在美国天文协会在波士顿举行的夏季会议上。钱德拉X射线望远镜的拍摄使船底座星云中已知巨型恒星的数量翻了一番，可是该星云也只不过拥有几百万年的历史。这样的恒星通过大规模的超新星爆发而结束自己短暂的生命，因此船底座超新星爆发的频次也一定是原以为的2倍之多，而且在我们星系其他的恒星形成区可能也在发生同样的情况。此外，钱德拉X射线望远镜在这个恒星育儿所里发现了六颗中子星——超新星爆炸后炽热的高密残骸。天空中的焰火肯定已经开始燃放，下一颗恒星有可能明天就要爆炸！ |
译自：美国《科学》杂志网站
原著：Govert Schilling
