The European Space Agency recently released an image captured by their Planck satellite of the two Magellanic Clouds, some of the closest objects to our Milky Way galaxy.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is about 160,000 light-years away, and appears as the large red and orange blob near the middle of the image, while the Small Magellanic Cloud is a bit further away—200,000 light-years—and is the similarly-colored blob closer to the bottom left corner of the image.
Each is classified as a dwarf galaxy, weighing between seven and ten billion times as much as the Sun. In comparison, the Milky Way galaxy weighs at least around 210 billion times as much as the sun, with some estimates being much higher.
If you were wondering how this image looks like some kind of Vincent van Gogh painting, then you’re in luck—we have answers!
The hazy appearance is caused by things floating around in the foreground—hundreds of thousands of light years worth of foreground.
Light and dust from every galaxy between the Planck satellite and the two Magellanic Clouds interfered with the dwarf galaxies’ radiation. The Planck satellite measures cosmic background radiation, and since all of these objects in space give off different kinds of radiation in different levels of intensity, the data gathered by the satellite is represented as the swirly, trippy image you see here.
To revive some 1980s slang in the most cheesy but also the most appropriate way possible: pretty freakin’ stellar, huh?
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Feature Image: ESA
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