Large Magellanic Cloud
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a spiral satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around 50 kiloparsecs (163,000 light-years), the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal (c. 16 kiloparsecs (52,000 light-years) away) and the possible dwarf irregular galaxy called the Canis Major Overdensity. Based on the D25 isophote at the B-band (445 nm wavelength of light), the Large Magellanic Cloud is about 9.86 kiloparsecs (32,200 light-years) across. It is roughly one-hundredth the mass of the Milky Way and is the fourth-largest galaxy in the Local Group, after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Milky Way, and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33).
| Large Magellanic Cloud | |
|---|---|
A map of the Large Magellanic Cloud with the brightest features annotated | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Dorado/Mensa |
| Right ascension | 05h 23m 34s |
| Declination | −69° 45.4′ |
| Distance | 163,000 light-years (49.97 kpc) |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 0.13 |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | SB(s)m |
| Mass | 1×1010 (excluding dark matter), 1.38×1011 (including dark matter). M☉ |
| Number of stars | 20 billion |
| Size | 9.86 kpc (32,200 ly) (diameter; 25.0 mag/arcsec2 B-band isophote) |
| Apparent size (V) | 10.75° × 9.17° |
| Other designations | |
| LMC, ESO 56- G 115, PGC 17223, Nubecula Major | |
The LMC is classified as a Magellanic spiral. 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.
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.
The LMC is predicted to merge with the Milky Way in approximately 2.4 billion years.