中英對照讀新聞》NASA’s Webb telescope captures close-up of Horse Nebula 美國航太總署的韋伯望遠鏡捕捉到「馬頭星雲」特寫照

◎陳成良

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope has revealed the sharpest images yet of a portion of the Horsehead Nebula, showing the "mane" in finer detail.

美國航太總署的韋伯太空望遠鏡揭示馬頭星雲一部分最清晰的圖像，更詳細地顯示了「鬃毛」。

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The Horsehead Nebula, in the constellation Orion, is 1,300 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

馬頭星雲位於獵戶座，距離我們1300光年。一光年將近6兆英里（9.7兆公里）。

Discovered over a century ago, its nickname derives from its striking appearance — a wispy pillar of gas and dust that resembles a horse rearing its head.

它被發現於一個多世紀前，綽號源自它那引人注目的外觀——一根渺小的氣體和塵埃柱，就像一匹昂起頭來的馬。

Webb’s latest infrared images released Monday captured the top of Horsehead in greater detail, illuminating clouds of chilly hydrogen molecules and soot-like chemicals. These glamour shots can help refine astronomers’ understanding of the nebula, which acts as a nursery for big stars to brew. (AP)

韋伯週一發佈的最新紅外線圖像，更詳細地捕捉到了馬頭星雲的頂部，照亮了寒冷的氫分子雲和類似煙塵的化學物質雲。這些精美照片可以幫助天文學家更深入了解這個星雲，這個星雲是大型恆星孕育的溫床。（美聯社）

新聞辭典

constellation：名詞，星座。例句：Rita knew all the constellations.（芮塔可辨識出天上所有的星座。）

wispy： 形容詞，(雲、蒸氣、煙等)一縷縷的, 飄渺的(毛髮等)。例句：Grey wispy hair straggled down to her shoulders. （稀疏的灰白頭髮披散在她肩頭。）