Posted on 01/15/2012 3:50:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Cosmic dust clouds ripple across this infrared portrait of our Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact, the remarkable composite image from the Herschel Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope show that dust clouds fill this neighboring dwarf galaxy, much like dust along the plane of the Milky Way itself. The dust temperatures tend to trace star forming activity. Spitzer data in blue hues indicate warm dust heated by young stars. Herschel's instruments contributed the image data shown in red and green, revealing dust emission from cooler and intermediate regions where star formation is just beginning or has stopped. Dominated by dust emission, the Large Magellanic Cloud's infrared appearance is different from views in optical images. But this galaxy's well-known Tarantula Nebula still stands out, easily seen here as the brightest region to the left of center. A mere 160,000 light-years distant, the Large Cloud of Magellan is about 30,000 light-years across.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech / STScI]
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Magellan would have loved that!
Magellan would have loved that!
Nicely said.
I can see the small and the large quite clearly most nights but never like that.
Just think of what the stars must have looked like to him as he sailed around the world!
A star to steer by.
Amazing and awesome to be sure.
And imagine how much data can be stored in a cloud that size! ;’)
“It’s full of stars.”
Just gorgeous!
I don’t know for sure, but it looks like a mushroom and black olive pizza to me.
LOL!
And we’ll get it in 160,000 light years or it’s free!
Is that a pot of bubble and squeak?
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