New View of a Neighbor

Countless stars, gas clouds, and other features highlight the most detailed view to date of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. This view consists of 300,000 individual images from Spitzer Space Telescope. The blue glow across the center of the image is from stars; small red objects are either stellar nurseries or the remnants of dieing stars; the green and yellow glow is from gas and dust that is illuminated by the stars. The galaxy is about 160,000 light-years away. [Credit: NASA/JPL/M.Meixner (STScI)/SAGE Legacy Team]