Large Magellanic Cloud
galaxy that is, in some sense, in orbit around our own Milky Way galaxy. It is at a distance of about fifty kiloparsecs (50,000 parsecs, or 160,000 light years). While somewhat irregular in morphology, it does have some traces of spiral structure.
Some speculate that the LMC was once a barred spiral galaxy that was disrupted by the Milky Way, to become type Irr-I. It still contains a central bar structure, and is the fourth largest member of the Local Group, following the Milky Way, Andromeda Galaxy, and M33.
It is visible as a faint object in the night sky of the southern hemisphere, straddling the border between the constellations of Dorado and Mensa. It is named after Ferdinand Magellan, who observed it and the companion Small Magellanic Cloud in his circumnavigational voyage around the Earth. (But note that it was already mentioned around 964 by 'Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi in his Book of Fixed Stars.)
It is home to the Tarantula Nebula, the most active starburst region in the Local Group of galaxies.
See also
