Large Magellanic Cloud

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it contains the Tarantula Nebula and is undergoing tidal interaction with our galaxy.

Dwarf galaxy: A galaxy substantially smaller and less massive than a typical large galaxy. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a nearby example of this broad galaxy class.
Magellanic Bridge: A stream of gas and stars connecting the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. This structure records material pulled between the two galaxies during close encounters.
SN 1987A: A supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud observed in 1987, the nearest naked-eye supernova since 1604. Its proximity enabled detailed study of a supernova and its progenitor star.
Ferdinand Magellan: A Portuguese-born explorer whose expedition completed the first circumnavigation of Earth. European accounts of the Clouds are associated with his sixteenth-century voyage.
Magellanic Clouds: A pair of nearby satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, consisting of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Large Magellanic Cloud is the larger member of this well-known pair.
Magellanic Stream: A long ribbon of gas trailing the Magellanic Clouds across the sky. Its stripped gas traces the Clouds’ gravitational interaction with the Milky Way.
R136: A dense young star cluster at the center of the Tarantula Nebula, containing some of the most massive known stars. It anchors the galaxy’s most extreme nearby example of massive-star formation.
Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi: A tenth-century Persian astronomer who described celestial objects in his Book of Fixed Stars. His work contains an early written description of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Tarantula Nebula: A vast star-forming nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, also known as 30 Doradus. This prominent nebula is the galaxy’s most active and luminous star-forming region.
Tidal interaction: A gravitational disturbance that changes the structure or motion of one astronomical system through another’s pull. Milky Way gravity distorts the Large Magellanic Cloud and removes some of its material.

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