The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It is the largest and closest such galaxy to our own, at a distance of only 163,000 light years. The LMC was first discovered in the late 15th century by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation voyage. It has since been studied extensively by astronomers, and its properties have been used to help constrain models of stellar and galactic evolution.
The LMC is an irregular galaxy with a mass of approximately 10 billion solar masses. It is gas-rich, with a high star formation rate relative to other galaxies its size. Its large population of young stars makes it an important laboratory for studying stellar evolution. The LMC is also home to several interesting astronomical objects, including two supernova remnants (the Tarantula Nebula and N11), numerous star clusters (including the famous double cluster h + χ Persei), and the bar structure that gives it its name.
The LMC lies close to the Milky Way in projection on the sky, making it an ideal target for observing with ground-based telescopes. However, its proximity also means that it is heavily affected by our Galaxy’s gravity, which has distorted its shape over time. In recent years, the LMC has been caught in what is known as “the Galactic tide” – the combined gravitational pull of both the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies – which is slowly stripping away its gas content. This process will eventually lead to the merger of the LMC with our Galaxy in several billion years time.