Cosmic dust clouds ripple across this infrared portrait of our
Milky Way's galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact, the
remarkable composite image from the Space Observatory and the
Spitzer Space Telescope show that dust clouds fill this
neighboring dwarf galaxy, much like dust along the plane of the
Milky Way itself. The dust temperatures tend to trace star
forming activity. Spitzer data in blue hues indicate warm dust
heated by young stars. Herschel's instruments contributed the
image data shown in red and green, revealing dust emission from
cooler and intermediate regions where star formation is just
beginning or has stopped. Dominated by dust emission, the Large
Magellanic Cloud's infrared appearance is different from views
in optical images. But this galaxy's well-known Tarantula Nebula
still stands out, easily seen here as the brightest region to
the left of center. A mere 160,000 light-years distant, the
Large Cloud of Magellan is about 30,000 light-years across. JPL-
Caltech / STScI