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BoomerangThis false-color radio image shows the Smith Cloud, a massive gas cloud that’s zooming around our galaxy’s outskirts. New observations show that it was flung off the Milky Way 70 million years ago, and will re-collide in 30 million years.
Photograph by Saxton/Lockman/NRAO/AUI/NSF/Mellinger

Week’s Best Space Pictures: Black Hole Fires 'Death Star' Ray

A cosmic fender-bender births a new galaxy, and the Curiosity Mars rover takes an elaborate selfie.

February 5, 2016

Feed your need for heavenly views of the universe with our picks of the week's most awe-inspiring space pictures.

This week, Saturn’s atmosphere reveals its ghostly bands of methane, a massive gas cloud boomerangs back toward the Milky Way galaxy, and satellites capture a lake with two faces.

National Geographic History Magazine

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