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■哈勃望遠鏡拍下的蝴蝶星雲「NGC 6302」酷似一隻展翅的蝴蝶。資料圖片
哈勃望遠鏡再次重振雄風，拍攝出一批壯觀的高清宇宙照片，包括「天際蝴蝶」和「眾生之柱」。
哈勃望遠鏡今年5月曾進行維修，增設一個新鏡頭和攝譜儀，並更新現有的科學儀器，其後首次在太空深處拍下10幅照片。
這個壯觀的蝴蝶星雲影像其實是一個有太陽5倍重量的星體，在垂死時所創造的。
美國太空總署指出，「一大鍋翻滾的氣體」被加熱至超過攝氏2萬度，再以時速96.56萬公里越過太空，就成為蝴蝶星雲所謂的「翅膀」。
美國太空總署華盛頓總部的科學任務理事會副主管韋勒表示：「這象徵哈勃的新開始。哈勃大修過後，現時機能變成歷來最強，可應付未來10年的需要。」
哈勃新的影像包括一個長度達3光年的龐大氣體和塵埃柱，船底座星雲內正孕育新星，新星火熱的輻射和電子流塑造出星雲內的柱子。星雲位於距地球7,500光年的地方，每一光年大概等於9.5萬億公里。
哈勃還拍攝到龐大的歐米伽半人馬座星團，中央位置有10萬顆色彩繽紛的繁星，整個共有1,000萬顆。
美國太空總署表示，新儀器對光更敏感，可大幅改善觀測的效率。
哈勃已服役19年，5月的大修是美國太空總署最後一次對哈勃的載人任務。這次更新將哈勃望遠鏡推向一個新的科技頂峰，天文學家可以搜尋最早期的星系、解開暗能量和暗物質的謎團，以及找出銀河系其他星體中行星誕生的過程。 法新社
註解 Hubble telescope﹕哈勃望遠鏡，是世界上最大、圖像最清晰的天文望遠鏡，1990年4月發射升空，於地球表面580公里高空的軌道上運行。升空至今，哈勃經歷5次大修，分別在1993年、1997年、1999年、2001年和今年5月，目前它其實已到「晚年」階段。美國太空總署稱哈勃望遠鏡至少能工作到2014年，此後，它可能被另一種更先進的觀測設備所取代。 ■資深翻譯員 羅國偉
Refurbished Hubble reveals cosmic wonder
A fully rejuvenated Hubble telescope kicked off its new life with a flurry of stunningly clear images of cosmic wonder, including a celestial "butterfly" and a "pillar of creation".
The 10 images were the first deep space shots snapped by Hubble since it underwent repair during a May mission that left it with a new camera and spectrograph as well as fixed and spruced up scientific instruments.
The spectacular butterfly-like image is of a nebula ─ a cloud of stellar dust and gas─created by the last throes of a dying star that once was about 5 times the mass of the Sun.
The so-called Butterfly Nebula's "wings" are in fact what NASA called "roiling cauldrons of gas" heated to over 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit (20,000 degrees Celsius) and speeding across space at over 600,000 miles (965,600 kilometers) per hour.
"This marks a new beginning for Hubble," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the US space agency's headquarters in Washington. "The telescope was given an extreme makeover and now is significantly more powerful than ever, well-equipped to last into the next decade."
Hubble's new portfolio included shots of a massive, three-light-year-long pillar of gas and dust where stars burst to life. Scorching radiation and streams of charged particles from the stars shaped the pillar inside the Carina Nebula stellar nursery, located some 7,500 light years away from Earth. Each light year is about 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
A colorful array of some 100,000 stars adorned a panoramic view of the crowded core of the huge Omega Centauri globular cluster, which counts nearly 10 million stars.
More sensitive to light, the new instruments will "improve Hubble's observing efficiency significantly," NASA said.
The repair job in May marked the end of NASA's human missions to the 19-year-old but beloved Hubble. The upgrade pushed the telescope to a new scientific summit, a perch from which astronomers can search for the earliest galaxies, unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter and chart the planet-forming processes underway around other stars in the Milky Way galaxy. AFP
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