March’s best science images
三月最好的科学图像
Supernova shot. Astronomers captured this stunning 1.3-gigapixel image of the Vela supernova remnant — the remains of a star that exploded more than 10,000 years ago — using the telescope-mounted Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Images taken through several DECam filters, each of which allows through distinct wavelengths of light, were combined to produce the bright colours. The resulting photo — DECam’s highest-resolution picture so far — shows the interwoven plumes of dust and gas in unprecedented detail.
超新星射击。天文学家在智利托洛洛山美洲天文台使用望远镜安装的暗能量相机（DECam）拍摄了这张令人惊叹的船帆座超新星遗迹的1.3千兆像素图像-这是一颗星星在10,000多年前爆炸的遗迹。通过几个DECam过滤器拍摄的图像，每个过滤器允许不同波长的光通过，结合起来产生明亮的颜色。由此产生的照片- DECam迄今为止分辨率最高的照片-以前所未有的细节显示了尘埃和气体交织的羽流。
Rare sighting. Researchers conducting an aerial survey off the coast of New England have spotted a grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) — a species thought to have been almost extinct from the Atlantic Ocean since the eighteenth century — diving and resurfacing. The animal’s presence could be explained by climate change: sea ice usually prevents these whales from crossing the Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean. But in the past few years, the passage has been largely free of ice during the Northern Hemisphere summer. “These sightings of grey whales in the Atlantic serve as a reminder of how quickly marine species respond to climate change, given the chance,” says Orla O’Brien, a marine biologist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts.
很少见。研究人员在新英格兰海岸附近进行空中调查时发现了一只灰鲸（学名为粗壮灰鲸）–一种被认为自18世纪以来几乎在大西洋灭绝的物种–潜水并重新浮出水面。这种动物的存在可以用气候变化来解释：海冰通常阻止这些鲸鱼穿越西北通道，该通道通过北冰洋连接大西洋和太平洋。但在过去的几年里，在北方的夏天，这条通道基本上没有冰。马萨诸塞州波士顿新英格兰水族馆的海洋生物学家奥拉奥布莱恩说：“在大西洋看到灰鲸提醒我们，如果有机会，海洋物种对气候变化的反应是多么迅速。”
Wind-driven wildfire. This drone shot of trees reduced to ash in Hemphill County, Texas, shows the aftermath of the Smokehouse Creek fire, the biggest wildfire ever recorded in the state. The blaze ripped through an area of more than 400,000 hectares and took three weeks to control. Unusually warm and gusty weather conditions allowed it to spread rapidly, prompting evacuations and destroying homes, power lines and other infrastructure.
风吹野火这张无人机拍摄的树木在德克萨斯州亨普希尔县化为灰烬，显示了该州有史以来最大的野火Smokehouse Creek大火的后果。大火蔓延了40多万公顷的土地，花了三个星期才得到控制。异常温暖和阵风天气条件使其迅速蔓延，促使疏散和摧毁房屋，电线和其他基础设施。
SpaceX spiral. This galaxy-like ‘SpaceX spiral’ was photographed over Iceland in early March, against a backdrop of the Northern Lights. The phenomenon is caused by sunlight bouncing off frozen crystals of excess fuel as they are jettisoned by a spinning rocket. The rocket — a SpaceX Falcon 9 that had blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California — released more than 50 small satellites into low Earth orbit before burning up in the atmosphere over the Barents Sea.
SpaceX螺旋。这张类似银河系的“SpaceX螺旋”照片是3月初在冰岛上空拍摄的，背景是北方极光。这一现象是由太阳光反射多余燃料的冻结晶体引起的，因为它们被旋转的火箭抛弃。这枚火箭是从加州范登堡太空部队基地发射的SpaceX猎鹰9号火箭，它将50多颗小型卫星送入近地轨道，然后在巴伦支海上空的大气层中燃烧殆尽。