NASA·APOD每日天文一图2022.6.23 [超高清]

又是经典星云篇-NGC6744

Beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way. It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo but appears as only a faint, extended object in small telescopes. We see the disk of the nearby island universe tilted towards our line of sight in this remarkably detailed galaxy portrait, a telescopic view that spans an area about the angular size of a full moon. In it, the giant galaxy's elongated yellowish core is dominated by the light from old, cool stars. Beyond the core, grand spiral arms are filled with young blue star clusters and speckled with pinkish star forming regions. An extended arm sweeps past smaller satellite galaxy NGC 6744A at the lower right. NGC 6744's galactic companion is reminiscent of the Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud. 

美丽的旋涡星系NGC6744直径近17.5万光年，比我们的银河系更大。它位于南天星座孔雀座，距离我们大约3000万光年远，在小型望远镜中，它看起来只是一个暗弱的延展天体。在这张非常详细的星系照片中，我们看到了这个近邻岛宇宙的盘面相对于我们视线的倾斜。这是一张望远镜照片，覆盖的区域大约相当于满月的角大小。画面中，这个巨大星系椭长的淡黄色星系核被古老的低温恒星发出的光所主导。在星系核之外，巨大的旋臂密布着年轻的蓝色星团，并点缀着粉红色的恒星形成区。一条延伸的旋臂掠过右下方较小的伴星系NGC6744A。NGC6744的星系同伴让人想起银河系的伴星系——大麦哲伦云。