                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2023 February 11

                        Magellanic Clouds over Chile
              Image Credit & Copyright: Felipe Mac Auliffe López

   Explanation: The two prominent clouds in this Chilean Atacama Desert
   skyscape captured on January 21 actually lie beyond our Milky Way
   galaxy. Known as the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds they are so
   named for the 16th century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan,
   leader of the first circumnavigation of planet Earth. Famous jewels of
   southern hemisphere skies, they are the brightest satellite galaxies of
   the Milky Way. The larger cloud is some 160,000 light-years, and the
   smaller 210,000 light-years distant. While both are irregular dwarf
   galaxies in their own right, they exhibit central barred structures in
   the deep wide-angle view. Wide and deep exposures also reveal faint
   dusty galactic cirrus nebulae and the imprints of gravitational tidal
   interactions between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

                   Tomorrow's picture: another cloudy day
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

