O nome de uma nebulosa
Consegue ver uma raposa brincalhona, uma hiena sorrateira ou... uma cabeça de galinha nesta imagem? Localizada na constelação do Centauro, esta nuvem de gás faz parte da gigantesca Nebulosa da Galinha Corredora. Algumas pessoas vêem aqui a cabeça de uma galinha, outras vêem o rabo.
Mas por muito que os cientistas gostem de dar estes nomes engraçados às nebulosas, o facto é que muitas vezes estas designações não são muito claras num campo internacional como a astronomia. É por isso que esta nebulosa é formalmente conhecida por outros dois nomes menos divertidos.
Em 1955, o astrónomo australiano Colin Stanley Gum fez um compilação de 84 nebulosas de emissão do céu meridional no seu Catálogo Gum. Esta nebulosa tem o número 40 neste catálogo, sendo por isso conhecida por Gum 40. Mas, ainda antes de Gum, em 1888, o astrónomo dinamarquês John Louis Emil Dreyer tinha já compilado o Novo Catálogo Geral de Nebulosas e Enxames de Estrelas (NGC, sigla do inglês para New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars), uma lista de 7840 objetos astronómicos que incluia galáxias, enxames de estrelas e nebulosas de emissão como esta. Mais tarde, Dreyer complementou a sua obra com dois Catálogos (IC, sigla do inglês para Index Catalogues), acrescentando 5386 objetos celestes adicionais. Esta nebulosa foi designada por IC 2872. O NGC ainda hoje é utilizado, tendo a sua mais recente atualização sido realizada em 2019, com o acrescento de 13 957 novos objectos.
Esta imagem da IC 2872, ou Gum 40, a cabeça da galinha ou qualquer outro nome que se lhe queira dar, foi capturada pelo VLT Survey Telescope (VST), instalado no Observatório do Paranal do ESO, no Chile. À medida que os telescópios e os instrumentos melhoram, vão sendo descobertos cada vez mais objetos do céu profundo, pelo que as listas e os catálogos nunca estarão completos. Mas isso não nos impede de as tentar compilar, ou de lhes inventar nomes engraçados!
Créditos:ESO/VPHAS+ team.
Sobre a imagem
| Id: | potw2450a |
| Língua: | pt |
| Tipo: | Fotográfico |
| Data de divulgação: | 9 de Dezembro de 2024 às 06:00 |
| Tamanho: | 6368 x 5315 px |
Sobre o objeto
| Nome: | Gum 40, IC2872, Running Chicken Nebula |
| Tipo: | Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Emission : H II Region |
Formatos de imagens
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