NGC 1514：水晶球星云
(原标题: NGC 1514: The Crystal Ball Nebula)
2026-05-28
浏览次数: 1510
你在这个水晶球里看到了什么？这张特色图片显示了ngc1514，被称为水晶球星云，是由夏威夷茂纳克亚的双子座北望远镜观测到的。NGC 1514距离我们1500光年远，是由威廉·赫歇尔在1790年发现的。当一颗恒星变成红巨星并喷出其外层气体层时，就形成了这个行星状星云。喷出的气体外壳被恒星的核心加热到比太阳表面还要热的温度：这使得气体发光，创造出像这样美丽的图像。水晶球星云稍微不对称的形状揭示了一个秘密：中心的明亮恒星有一个伴星。由于这两颗恒星以大约9年的周期相互绕转，它们塑造了周围的气体。大约1万到2.5万年后，星云将被恒星风驱散。
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What do you see in this crystal ball? The featured image shows NGC 1514, known as the Crystal Ball Nebula, observed by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, in Hawai'i. NGC 1514 is 1,500 light-years away and was discovered by William Herschel in 1790. This planetary nebula is formed when a star becomes a red giant and ejects its outer gas layers. The ejected shell of gas is heated up by the core of the star to temperatures hotter than the surface of our Sun: that makes the gas shine, creating beautiful images like this one. The slightly asymmetrical shape of the Crystal Ball Nebula reveals a secret: the bright star in the center has a companion. As the two stars orbit each other with a period of about nine years, they shape the gas around them. In about 10,000 - 25,000 years the nebula will be dissipated by their stellar winds.