January 25, 1998
The stars above are ancient, but your chance to be here is exquisitely temporary.
The Small Cloud of Magellan (SMC)
Birthday · January 25, 1998
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APOD published January 25, 1998. Credit: D. Malin (AAO), AATB, ROE, UKS Telescope. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Almost unknown to casual observers in the northern hemisphere, the southern sky contains two diffuse wonders known as the Magellanic Clouds. The Magellanic Clouds are small irregular galaxies orbiting our own larger Milky Way spiral galaxy. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), pictured here, is about 250,000 light years away and contains a preponderance of young, hot, blue stars indicating it has undergone a recent period of star formation. There is evidence that the SMC is not gravitationally bound to the LMC.
Image credit: D. Malin (AAO), AATB, ROE, UKS Telescope