评论
打印
Newly released images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope show 19 spiral galaxies relatively close to our Milky Way.
最新公布的由詹姆斯·韦布空间望远镜捕捉到的图像显示，19个螺旋星系距离我们的银河系相对较近。
The images offer new information on star formation, galaxy structure and evolution.
这些图像提供了关于恒星形成、星系结构和演化的新信息。
The images were made public on Monday by a team of scientists involved in a project called Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS).
周一，一组科学家公布了这些照片，这些科学家参与了一个名为“近邻星系高分辨观测物理”项目。
The project operates across several major astronomical observatories.
该项目涉及几个主要的天文观测站。
The closest of the 19 galaxies is called NGC5068.
19个螺旋星系中距离银河系最近的一个叫做NGC5068。
It is about 15 million light years from Earth.
它距离地球约1500万光年。
The most distant is NGC1365, about 60 million light years from Earth.
距离最远的是NGC1365，距离地球约6000万光年。
A light year is the distance light travels in a year, which is equal to about 9.5 trillion kilometers.
一光年是光在一年中传播的距离，大约相当于9.5万亿公里。
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched in 2021 and began collecting data in 2022.
詹姆斯·韦布空间望远镜于2021年发射升空，并于2022年开始收集数据。
It has shaped understanding of the early universe while taking pictures of space.
它通过拍摄太空照片塑造了对早期宇宙的理解。
The orbiting telescope looks at the universe mainly in the infrared.
该轨道望远镜主要通过红外线观测宇宙。
The Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990 and is still in use, has examined the universe mostly at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.
哈勃空间望远镜于1990年发射升空，目前仍在使用中，它主要利用光学和紫外线波长观测宇宙。
Spiral galaxies are a common galaxy type.
螺旋星系是一种常见的星系类型。
Our Milky Way is one.
我们的银河系就是其中之一。
The new observations came from Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
新的观测结果来自韦布空间望远镜的近红外相机和中红外仪器。
They show about 100,000 star clusters and millions, or even billions, of individual stars.
它们显示了大约10万个星团和数百万甚至数十亿颗独立的恒星。
"These data are important as they give us a new view on the earliest phase of star formation," said University of Oxford astronomer Thomas Williams.
牛津大学天文学家托马斯·威廉姆斯说：“这些数据很重要，因为它们让我们对恒星形成的最早阶段有了新的认识。”
He led the team's data processing on the images.
他领导团队对这些图像进行数据处理。
Williams added, "Stars are born deep within dusty clouds that completely block out the light at visible wavelengths - what the Hubble Space Telescope is sensitive to - but these clouds light up at the JWST wavelengths. We don't know a lot about this phase."
威廉姆斯补充道：“恒星诞生在尘埃云的深处，尘埃云完全阻挡了可见波的光，哈勃空间望远镜对可见光很敏感，但詹姆斯·韦布空间望远镜观测到了发光的尘埃云。我们对这一阶段知之甚少。”
About half of spiral galaxies have a straight structure, called a bar, coming out from the center.
大约一半的螺旋星系有一个从中心延伸出来的直线结构，称为短棒。
The spiral arms attach to this structure.
螺旋臂附着在这个结构上。
Williams said the commonly held thought is that galaxies form from the inside out.
威廉姆斯说，人们普遍认为星系是由内而外形成的。
That way, they "get bigger and bigger over their lifetimes."
这样一来，它们“在一生中变得越来越大”。
The images let scientists for the first time determine the structure of the clouds of dust and gas from which stars and planets form at a high level of detail.
这些图像让科学家第一次高度细节化地确定了恒星和行星形成的尘埃云和气体云的结构。
The images are in galaxies beyond the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud.
这些图像上显示的尘埃云和气体云位于大麦哲伦星云和小麦哲伦星云之外的星系中。
Those two galaxies are near the Milky Way.
这两个星系位于银河系附近。
Webb's observations build on Hubble's.
韦布空间望远镜的观测结果是建立在哈勃空间望远镜观测结果的基础上的。
Erik Rosolowsky is an astronomer at Canada's University of Alberta.
埃里克·罗索洛夫斯基是加拿大阿尔伯塔大学的天文学家。
He said, "Using Hubble, we would see the starlight from galaxies, but some of the light was blocked by the dust of galaxies."
他说：“使用哈勃空间望远镜，我们可以看到来自星系的星光，但有些光被星系的尘埃挡住了。”
Rosolowsky added, "This limitation made it hard to understand parts of how a galaxy operates as a system. With Webb's view in the infrared, we can see through this dust to see stars behind and within the enshrouding dust."
罗索洛夫斯基补充道：“这种限制使得我们很难理解星系作为一个系统是如何运转的。通过韦布空间望远镜捕捉到的红外线光，我们可以透过尘埃看到隐藏在尘埃后面和尘埃中的恒星。”
I'm Dan Novak.
丹·诺瓦克为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
