双子座北望远镜，位于海拔13,800英尺的高空，捕捉到了遥远星系的壮丽景象。它将镜头对准了英仙座星系团，拍摄到了这个巨大星系团中心区域的“令人眼花缭乱的星系集合”。这个超过8米（26英尺）宽的望远镜，是世界上最先进的光学/红外望远镜之一，能够捕捉到大量的远距离光线，从而展现出宇宙的壮丽景象。中心是NGC 1270，一个距离地球2.4亿光年的巨型椭圆星系。这种星系呈椭圆形，很可能是由螺旋星系之间的大碰撞形成的，比如数十亿年后银河系和仙女座星系之间的碰撞。在这个视野中还有许多螺旋星系，包括左上角的正面星系。其他星系则以不同的角度倾斜，展示了它们的圆盘的侧面或边缘，就像飞行的飞盘一样。与银河系类似，这些星系中每一个都可能包含数亿颗恒星，甚至更多。而且有恒星的地方，就有大量的行星（最早期的星系除外）。例如，仅在银河系中可能就有超过一万亿颗系外行星。

🔭 **双子座北望远镜捕捉到英仙座星系团的壮丽景象**：这张照片展现了这个巨大星系团中心区域的“令人眼花缭乱的星系集合”，包括中心处的巨型椭圆星系NGC 1270，以及许多螺旋星系。

🌌 **星系碰撞与演化：** NGC 1270是一个巨型椭圆星系，很可能是由螺旋星系之间的大碰撞形成的，这与数十亿年后银河系和仙女座星系之间的碰撞类似。

🪐 **系外行星探索：** 双子座望远镜拥有专门用于探测遥远世界的光学仪器，它能够探测到“比宿主恒星暗一百万倍的系外行星”发出的微弱光线，从而帮助我们更好地了解其他星系和我们自己的太阳系。

🌎 **寻找宇宙中的“我们”：** 通过寻找系外行星，天文学家能够更好地了解其他星系，并改进对我们自己太阳系的理解，从而回答一个重要的问题：我们的太阳系和它的岩石行星在宇宙中是典型的，还是特殊的？

A powerful telescope, perched above the clouds at some 13,800 feet, has snapped a brilliant view of distant galaxies.

Astronomers pointed the Gemini North telescope into deep space at the Perseus Cluster, capturing a "dazzling collection of galaxies in the central region of this enormous cluster."

"Can you spot all the galaxies in this cosmic masterpiece?" the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab — which runs big telescopes across the U.S. and globally —posted online.

The over 8-meter (more than 26-foot) wide Gemini telescope, which NASA notes is one of the world’s most advanced optical/infrared telescopes, catches prodigious amounts of distant light, allowing for the detailed cosmic vista below.

At center is NGC 1270, a giant elliptical galaxy some 240 million light years beyond Earth. Such a galaxy is egg-shaped, and was likely formed by great collisions between spiral galaxies, such as what might occur between our Milky Way and Andromeda in billions of years. There are a wealth of spiral galaxies in this view, too, including the face-on galaxy in the left corner. Others are angled in different directions, showing us the side or edge of their disk, like a flying frisbee.

Similar to the Milky Way, each of these galaxies is likely contains hundreds of millions of stars, if not many more. And where there are stars, there are copious numbers of planets (except in the earliest galaxies). For instance, there are probably over a trillion exoplanets in our Milky Way galaxy alone.

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The International Gemini Observatory, consisting of the Gemini North and South telescopes, has a special interest in detecting far-off worlds. The Gemini Planet Imager, an optical instrument for the telescopes, is designed to detect the extremely faint light from "exoplanets that are a millionth as bright as their host star," the observatory says.

Gemini has directly imaged such distant worlds, and just this year Gemini North detected "rock-forming elements" on a strange and scorching Jupiter-sized planet. By finding these alien planets, astronomers will be able to better understand not just other solar systems, but improve the understanding of our own: Is our solar system, and its rocky planets, typical in the cosmos, or are we special?