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Plowing Through the Galaxy
Featured on January 25, 2017
Alpha Camelopardalis, a giant star in the northern constellation Camelopardalis, the giraffe, rams through the galaxy in this false-color image from WISE, an infrared space telescope. The star blows a thick, strong wind of charged particles into space. The wind collides with clouds of gas around the star, forming a bow shock (the red arc) like that of a ship speeding through the ocean. The shock wave spans several light-years. [NASA/JPL/Caltech/WISE]
