Large and Small Magellanic Clouds over trees, with a meteor trail at lower left. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is just left of centre, with the Sma

---

Large and Small Magellanic Clouds over trees, with a meteor trail at lower left. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is just left of centre, with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) at far right. Together with our Milky Way Galaxy, these galaxies are part of the Local Group of galaxies. It was thought that they were satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, but recent research suggests that they are on a longer trajectory passing near the Milky Way. The LMC is some 160,000 light years away in the constellations of Dorado and Mensa, and the SMC is around 200,000 light years from Earth in the constellations of Tucana and Hydrus. Photographed from Namibia.

---

Size: 5115px × 3416px
Photo credit: © JUAN CARLOS CASADO (starryearth.com)/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, africa, african, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, atmosphere, atmospheric, cloud, clouds, dorado, environment, environmental, falling, galaxies, galaxy, hydrus, large, lmc, magellanic, mensa, meteor, meteors, namibia, namibian, nature, night, night-time, phemonena, phenomemon, shooting, sky, small, smc, space, star, stars, tracks, trail, trails, tucana