昴宿星團與塵埃雲
Pleiades and Stardust
美麗的昴宿星團 (亦稱為七姐妹星團)離我們只有四百光年遠，正高速通過一團宇宙塵埃雲，因此它也以引人注目的藍色反射星雲著名。這幅精彩、跨幅三度的廣角影像 ，除了呈現了這個著名的星群(右方)之外，同時也突顯了附近聲名不彰，但綿延超過二十光年的廣大塵埃反射星雲。不過在這個案例中，七姐妹星團的眾星和這些宇宙塵埃雲並無關聯，它們只是湊巧同時通過同一個區域而已。不過天文學家使用紅外光偵測器，最近發現了一個圍拱年輕昴宿星團成員星HD 23514的塵埃盤，這個拱星盤的大小和我們太陽系類地行星所佔的區域相當，因此很可能是石質行星形成活動所留下的殘渣。
Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster is well-known for its striking blue reflection nebulae. This remarkable wide-field (3 degree) image of the region shows the famous star cluster at the right, while highlighting lesser known dusty reflection nebulae nearby, across an area that would span over 20 light-years. In this case, the sister stars and cosmic dust clouds are not related, they just happen to be passing through the same region of space. But astronomers using infrared detectors have recently found a dusty disk that really does belong to one young Pleiades star — HD 23514. Surrounding HD 23514, the disk is estimated to be comparable in size to the terrestrial planet zone in our own solar system and likely represents the debris from the process of rocky planet formation.
