LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

The Large Magellanic Cloud (abbreviated as LMC in international notation) is a dwarf galaxy, probably a satellite of the Milky Way, and the larger of the two Magellanic Clouds. Given its relatively short distance of only 48 kpc (160,000 al), it is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way after the Canis Major Elliptical Dwarf (12.9 kpc (42,000 al)) and that of Sagittarius (16 kpc ( 52 000 al)), the latter located on the opposite side of the galactic center with respect to the solar system.

The Large Magellanic Cloud has a mass equivalent to approximately 10 billion times that of the Sun (1010 solar masses), equal to approximately one tenth of the mass of the Milky Way, i.e. approximately 20 billion stars; with a diameter of about 14,000 light-years it is therefore also the fourth largest galaxy in the Local Group, after Andromeda, the Milky Way and the Triangulum galaxy