NASA | A Swift Tour of the Nearest Galaxies in UV Light

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Astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa., have used NASA's Swift satellite to create the most detailed surveys of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the two closest major galaxies, in ultraviolet light.
Thousands of images were assembled into seamless portraits of the main body of each galaxy to produce the highest-resolution surveys of the Magellanic Clouds at ultraviolet wavelengths. The project was proposed by Stefan Immler, an astronomer at Goddard.

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, or LMC and SMC for short, lie about 163,000 and 200,000 light-years away, respectively, and orbit each other as well as our own Milky Way galaxy.

Compared to the Milky Way, the LMC has about one-tenth its physical size and only 1 percent of its mass. The SMC is only half the size of the LMC and contains about two-thirds of its mass.
The new images reveal about a million ultraviolet sources within the LMC and about 250,000 in the SMC.

Viewing in the ultraviolet allows astronomers to suppress the light of normal stars like the sun, which are not very bright at these higher energies, and provide a clearer picture of the hottest stars and star-formation regions.

Only Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope, or UVOT, is capable of producing such high-resolution wide-field multi-color surveys in the ultraviolet. The LMC and SMC images range from 1,600 to 3,300 angstroms, UV wavelengths largely blocked by Earth's atmosphere.

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are readily visible from the Southern Hemisphere as faint, glowing patches in the night sky. The galaxies are named after Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who in 1519 led an expedition to sail around the world. He and his crew were among the first Europeans to sight the objects.
All visible light imagery provided by Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University.

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This was absolutely gorgeous. As you are listening to the guy talk, you begin to wonder why we need to know about stellar winds and stuff and then you understand that it's genuinely because of curiosity. It's a simple pursuit of knowledge to know more about our universe which is absolutely beautiful.

ChocolateHearts
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This is beautiful. Thanks for uploading.

haltdieklappe
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NASA, one of the many things that makes me proud to be American <3 keep up the good work guys

MrEriC
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This Stefan Immler guy is amazing. He's like Werner Herzog for NASA! He should narrate EVERYTHING.

artistmakesgood
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its so beautiful it makes you wanna cry :'3

missjode
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Unglaublich schön. Wie kann nur angezweifelt werden, wir wären alleine ? Wir sind nicht allein !

Euros
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Divine! Thanks for the beautiful video. "Hot, young and massive stars" - who wouldn't love 'em? :)

leonchia
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Really cool seeing the Tarantula Galaxy w scale & context.

ctfchris
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I wish light pollution didn't block the view of all this majestic beauty. I really want to someday go into the sahara and just stare at the sky all night.

_Eamon
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It looks like a bunch of glitter on a painting its amazing

Cholyxd
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How can anyone dislike this video?? Absolutely wonderful video.

pecosRB
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i'm proud to be here and see this wonder.

LucasBatistussi
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And to think this is only less than 1 trillionth of the universe. Boggles the mind and makes you feel insignificant and special all at the same time.

shawk
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Damn so beautiful :) are there other people in the universe? Does someone know?

smcjqmswjcm
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It's incredible how such a lovely video can provoke this torrent of self hatred and misanthropy.

TheUnworthy
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This is so beautiful and breathtaking while today we fear a global war

ceoofsololeveling
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Lord Xenu is coming on his Imperial 747 Space Planes

:-P

qoaa
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how i hate light pollution yet would never go without my own light

MkE
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Well, you can learn about it in your spare time, as an hobby. There are lots of YouTube videos and websites on the internet, which may very well be a better way of learning than paying for education at universities.

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And where are those HQ images? Can't find any .tiff available online

magisterxmilitum
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