<p id="docs-internal-guid-4b5208fd-642a-046a-cc6d-699e13956ea1" dir="ltr"><strong>A pair of star nurseries are lit up like cosmic neon signs, in this stunning new image by the <a href="http://www.eso.org/public/">European Southern Observatory's </a>(ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.</strong></p><p dir="ltr">These colorful glowing nebulae sit within the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2434.html#.UgUZ3GT5kvk">Large Magellanic Cloud</a>—the largest satellite galaxy of the <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/12/milky-way/croswell-text">Milky Way</a> some 160,000 light years from Earth.</p><p dir="ltr">The Large Magellanic Cloud is quite small compared to our Milky Way, with less than one tenth as much mass and spanning only 14,000 light-years, whereas the Milky Way stretches 100,000 light-years. Its irregular shape is likely a consequence of gravitational push and pull with the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud.</p><p><em> —Andrew Fazekas</em></p>