Large Magellanic Cloud

              LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.[5] At a distance of around 50 kiloparsecs (≈160,000 light-years),[2][6][7][8] the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal (~16 kpc) and the possible dwarf irregular galaxy known as the Canis Major Overdensity. Based on readily visible stars and a mass of approximately 10 billion solar masses, the diameter of the LMC is about 14,000 light-years (4.3 kpc). It is roughly a hundredth as massive as the Milky Way[3] and is the fourth-largest galaxy in the Local Group, after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Milky Way and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33).

The LMC is classified as a Magellanic spiral.[9] It contains a stellar bar that is geometrically off center, suggesting that it was a barred dwarf spiral galaxy before its spiral arms were disrupted, likely by tidal interactions from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the Milky Way's gravity.[10]

With a declination of about −70°, the LMC is visible as a faint "cloud" from the southern hemisphere of the Earth and from as far north as 20° N. It straddles the constellations Dorado and Mensa and has an apparent length of about 10° to the naked eye, 20 times the Moon's diameter, from dark sites away from light pollution.[11]

The Milky Way and the LMC are predicted to collide in approximately 2.4 billion years.


Nearly 200,000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, floats in space, in a long and slow dance around our galaxy. Vast clouds of gas within it slowly collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a riot of colors, visible in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is ablaze with star-forming regions. From the Tarantula Nebula, the brightest stellar nursery in our cosmic neighborhood, to LHA 120-N 11, part of which is featured in this Hubble image, the small and irregular galaxy is scattered with glowing nebulae, the most noticeable sign that new stars are being born.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a dwarf irregular galaxy located on the border between the constellations Dorado and Mensa.

The galaxy is believed to be a satellite of the Milky Way and a member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes about 30 galaxies that are loosely bound together by their gravitation.

The Large Magellanic cloud lies an an approximate distance of 163,000 light years, or just under 50 kiloparsecs from Earth. Covering several degrees of the sky, the Large Magellanic Cloud is quite large in size, as its name indicates, and easy to find without binoculars for observers in the southern hemisphere.

It is the fourth largest galaxy in the Local Group, after Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way, and Triangulum Galaxy. The LMC is also one of very few galaxies that are visible to the unaided eye. The galaxy appears as a faint cloud more than 20 times the width of the full Moon. The visible part of the Large Magellanic Cloud is about 17,000 light years across.

Along with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the LMC appears like a piece of the Milky Way that has broken off, when in fact both Magellanic Clouds are separate small galaxies.

Both Magellanic Clouds are companions to our galaxy. The Large Magellanic Cloud is orbiting the Milky Way and is gravitationally bound to it. It is the third nearest galaxy to the Milky Way, with only the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal galaxy in Sagittarius constellation and the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy in Canis Major lying closer, at 16 and 12.9 kiloparsecs, respectively. (The status of the Canis Major Dwarf as a galaxy is under dispute.)

The Large Magellanic Cloud is often listed as an irregular type galaxy because of its appearance, which is likely the result of the galaxy’s tidal interactions with the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), located in Tucana constellation. The LMC has a prominent bar in its central region, which indicates that it may have previously been a barred spiral galaxy.

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