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Glossary term: 漩涡星系

Description: 漩涡星系是指具有螺旋臂的星系:螺旋臂是在星系旋转过程中形成的密度较高的区域,气体和尘埃在这里被压缩,新的恒星在这里诞生。大多数漩涡星系都是盘状星系,因此这两个名称有时可以互换使用。大多数漩涡星系都有一个由恒星组成的中央核球,许多(包括银河系在内)漩涡星系都有一个中央棒状结构。漩涡星系有别于椭圆星系、透镜星系、不规则星系和矮星系(虽然矮漩涡星系也存在)。

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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两颗漩涡星系正处于早期合并阶段,彼此“拥抱”。可以看到较小星系的旋臂已经出现了明显的扭曲。

漩涡星系合并

Caption: 这张图片展示了两颗相互作用的漩涡星系,它们距离地球大约1.5亿光年。两颗漩涡星系在引力的牵引下“共舞”,使得它们的旋臂出现了明显的扭曲。这幅图像中所展现的“拥抱”,最终将以两个星系合并为一个星系而结束,极有可能形成一个椭圆星系。
Credit: 欧空局 credit link

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Related Diagrams


Leo resembles a lion standing on the ecliptic (which runs ESE to WNW) with its nose pointed northwest.

Leo Constellation Map

Caption: The zodiac constellation Leo and its surrounding constellations. Starting from the top of the diagram and going clockwise, these are Leo Minor, Cancer, Sextans, Hydra, Crater, Virgo and Ursa Major. The brightest star in Leo, Regulus, lies almost exactly on the ecliptic (shown here as a blue line): the path the Sun appears to take across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun spends the period from mid August to mid September in Leo. The other planets in the Solar System can often be found in Leo. Leo spans the celestial equator and is thus part of it is visible at some time in the year from all of planet Earth with some of the constellation obscured for the most arctic and antarctic regions of the world. Leo is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn. Several objects can be seen in Leo, including M65 and M66 – two galaxies in the Leo Triplet, a trio of galaxies including NGC 3628, not listed here. In addition, M96, a spiral galaxy, can be seen as a fuzzy object using a small telescope, and Messier 105, an elliptical galaxy. Each of these objects are labelled on the map as red ellipses. The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labelled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the line marking the ecliptic, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by IAU/Sky & Telescope

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons 署名 4.0 国际 (CC BY 4.0) icons


The constellation Virgo appears as a person lying with their back roughly against the diagonal ecliptic, arms outstretched, and feet pointed east.

Virgo Constellation Map

Caption: The zodiac constellation Virgo and its surrounding constellations. Starting from the top of the diagram and going clockwise, these are Coma Berenices, Leo, Crater, Corvus, Libra, and Bootes. The brightest star in Virgo, Spica, lies just below the ecliptic (shown here as a blue line) in the middle of the map. One way of locating this star in the night sky is to follow the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus in Bootes and go along a line straight down to Spica (“arc to Arcturus and spike to Spica”). This star lies just below the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the path the Sun appears to take across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun is in Virgo from mid September to late October. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Virgo. Virgo spans the celestial equator and is thus part of it is visible at some time in the year from all of planet Earth with some of the constellation obscured for the most arctic and antarctic regions of the world. Virgo is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn. The constellation Virgo appears as a person lying with their back roughly against the ecliptic, arms outstretched, and feet pointed east. Several deep-sky objects are visible in Virgo, including NGC4697, M49, M87, M86, M84, and M60, all of which are labelled as red ellipses on the map. These are all spiral and elliptical galaxies located several millions of lightyears from Earth. Most notably, M87 is host to the supermassive black hole (Pōwehi) that was imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019. All of these galaxies are members of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest cluster of galaxies to the Milky Way. The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labelled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the line marking the ecliptic, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by IAU/Sky & Telescope

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons 署名 4.0 国际 (CC BY 4.0) icons


大熊座形似一把长柄勺,勺柄朝东、勺斗朝西,几排较暗的恒星向南延伸。

大熊座星图

Caption: 大熊座及其明亮恒星与周边星座示意图。从顶部开始沿顺时针方向,大熊座周边的星座依次为:天龙座、鹿豹座、天猫座、小狮座、狮子座、后发座、猎犬座和牧夫座。大熊座中有着名为“北斗七星”的醒目星群,这也是大熊座最著名的标志。这个醒目的北天星群在全球不同文化中拥有丰富多样的名称。尽管大多数星座和星群中的恒星是互不关联的,它们在天球上投影出的图案其实仅是出于巧合,但北斗七星中的五颗恒星同属“大熊座移动星群”——这些恒星在宇宙中同步运动,很可能在3亿年前形成于同一区域。图中北斗右侧末端的两颗星构成“指极星”,可由它们的连线找到位于小熊座的北极星。 作为北天星座,大熊座在北半球和赤道地区都是可见的。除南极地区外,南半球的部分区域也可观测到大熊座的局部,但南半球温带地区并不都能看到完整的北斗七星。而在北极和北半球大多数温带地区,北斗七星以及大熊座的其他主要部分则处于恒显圈内。大熊座的最佳观测期为北半球春季与南半球秋季。 大熊座的北部有两个易于观测的星系,在图中以红色椭圆标注:旋涡星系M81和可能同为旋涡星系的M82。由于M82的侧方朝向地球,我们难以通过观测确定其结构。行星状星云M97(猫头鹰星云)位于大熊座中央,在图中以叠加了十字符号的绿色圆圈标注。 该图的纵轴为赤纬,横轴为赤经,方向为上北下南左东右西。图中标注的恒星大小对应其视星等——衡量天体视亮度的标准,较大的圆点代表着较亮的恒星。图中的希腊字母标注着星座中最亮的恒星。这些恒星按亮度排序,最亮的一般被标记为α星,第二亮的一般为β星,等等,不过这种字母排序并不总是和实际亮度排序完全一致。图中虚线标注的是国际天文学联合会划定的星座边界,绿色实线则是一种常见的星座形象连线。需要注意的是,在实际观测时,这些边界与连线都不会出现在天空中。
Credit: 国际天文学联合会天文教育办公室(IAU OAE)根据国际天文学联合会和《天空与望远镜》的原文改编

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons 署名 4.0 国际 (CC BY 4.0) icons


Camelopardalis has no very bright stars and no well-defined shape

Camelopardalis Constellation Map

Caption: The constellation Camelopardalis with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Camelopardalis is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cepheus, Cassiopea, Perseus, Auriga, Lynx, Ursa Major, Draco and Ursa Minor. Camelopardalis is a large constellation but contains relatively few bright stars. Camelopardalis is a northern constellation and as such the whole constellation is visible for the whole northern hemisphere at some point in the year. It is also visible from equatorial parts of the southern hemisphere with some parts visible to temperate southern regions. The whole constellation is circumpolar for all arctic and more northerly temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Camelopardalis is best viewed in the evening in the late northern hemisphere winter and late southern hemisphere summer. The spiral galaxies NGC 2403 and IC 342 lie in Camelopardalis and are marked here with red ellipses. This diagram maps an area around the north celestial pole. Here lines of constant right ascension converge. The right ascension values of these lines are marked on the x-axis above and below the diagram. Some of the lines of constant declination are marked on the y-axis. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons 署名 4.0 国际 (CC BY 4.0) icons


Cepheus appears as a head wearing a pointy hat tilted anticlockwise by 45 degrees

Cepheus Constellation Map

Caption: The constellation Cepheus along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Cepheus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Camelopardalis, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cygnus, Lacerta and Cassiopeia. Cepheus is a large constellation. Its most notable star is Delta Cephei, the prototype for the class of variable stars known as Cepheid variables. These are variable stars which can be used to estimate distances both within our galaxy and to nearby galaxies. Cepheus lies close to the north celestial pole. As such it is circumpolar for arctic and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. The whole of the constellation is also visible at some point in the year in equatorial regions of the northern hemisphere with parts of it visible in equatorial regions of the southern hemisphere. It is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere late autumn and southern hemisphere late spring. The open cluster NGC 188 lies in Cepheus and is marked here with a yellow circle. The nebula NGC 7023 also lies in the constellation and is marked with a green square. The red ellipse in the lower right marks the position of the spiral galaxy NGC 6946. This diagram maps an area around the north celestial pole. Here lines of constant right ascension converge. The right ascension values of these lines are marked on the x-axis above and below the diagram. Some of the lines of constant declination are marked on the y-axis. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. Delta Cephei is marked with a circle around a dot as it is a variable star. Mu Cephei is also a variable star marked here as an open circle. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons 署名 4.0 国际 (CC BY 4.0) icons