Page 17 - Small Magellanic Cloud News Today

Studies tell us the Small Magellanic Cloud is about 200,000 light-years away, about 7,000 light-years across, and hosts several hundred million stars.

The stunning perspectives show four of our galactic neighbors in a different light.

Vibrant images of common cosmic objects created from retired missions.

The Gaia space telescope creates the most comprehensive map of the Milky Way, allowing astronomers to study our galaxys distant past, as well as its future.

Here are four scientific questions about our galaxy, the Milky Way, that astronomers hope to solve with the June 13 data dump from Europes Gaia mission.

“That there were other worlds, invisible, unknown, beyond imagination even, was a revelation to him.” -Kim Edwards And every time two particles interact with one another, the Universe is forever different from how it was a moment before. Here at Starts With A Bang, this past week saw us explore a number of aspects of our ever-changing reality, including:

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint NASA-German Aerospace Center (DLR) project, completed an observation mission in Chile April 1, where it captured high-resolution celestial images only visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

ESO, European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere

"To be is to be the value of a variable." -Willard Van Orman Quine

The Magellanic Clouds, the two closest star-making galaxies to the Milky Way, owe much of their stellar creativity to each other.