A guide to what's up in the sky for Southern Australia

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Large Magellanic Cloud (1st Nov 2024)

Distance: 163,000 light years Right Ascension 05 : 23.6 Declination -69 : 45

The Magellanic Clouds are named for the explorer Ferdinand Magellan who noted their presence in 1519. The clouds represent a binary system of dwarf irregular galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) measures some 20,000 light years across making it the fourth largest member of the Local group followed by the Milky Way, M31, and M33. The LMC is about 1/20th the diameter of our galaxy and contains about 1/10th the number of stars. Although it is an irregular galaxy it has traces of spiral structure and even contains
an off-centred bar. Regarding the origin of the LMC one possible scenario is that the LMC was once a barred spiral that became disrupted in a close encounter with the Milky Way.

On February 24, 1987 supernova 1987A occurred in the LMC. It was the nearest observed supernova since the invention of the telescope.