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 Dwarf Elliptical (12.9 kpc (42 000 al)) and Sagittarius (16 kpc (52 000 al)), the latter located on the opposite side of the galactic center from the Solar System.

The Large Magellanic Cloud has a mass equivalent to about 10 billion times that of the Sun (1010 solar masses), equal to about a tenth of the mass of the Milky Way, or about 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 the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way and the Triangulum galaxy.

Although the Large Cloud is often considered an irregular galaxy, it contains a thick bar running through its center that suggests that it was originally a barred spiral galaxy which, due to the large tidal forces due to the interaction with our Galaxy and the Small Magellanic Cloud, has undergone deformations. NASA's database of extragalactic objects considers it to be class SB(s)m, according to the Hubble classification.

It is visible to the naked eye as a faint object in the night sky of Earth's southern hemisphere, on the border between the constellations of Dorado and Mensa. It is named in honor of Ferdinand Magellan who observed it together with his companion (called the Small Magellanic Cloud) on his voyage of circumnavigation of the earth.

In the Cloud is the Tarantula Nebula, the most active star-forming region in the Local Group of galaxies. In addition, in 1987, the explosion of what would become known as Supernova 1987a was observed in the Cloud.