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Busy Neighbor
Featured on March 20, 2012
The Milky Way's most prominent companion galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, shines vigorously in this infrared view from the Herschel and Spitzer space telescopes. The bright tendrils are clouds and streamers of dust, while the bright blobs of light are stellar nurseries that are giving birth to many new stars. The galaxy is about 170,000 light-years away, and is one of about two dozen galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. [ESA/NASA/JPL/Caltech/STScI]