page_title: Magellanic Clouds
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Magellanic Clouds / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxy is a striking feature of the southern sky even to the unaided eye. But visible-light telescopes cannot get a really clear view of what is in the galaxy because of obscuring clouds of interstellar dust. VISTA’s infrared capabilities have now allowed astronomers to see the myriad of stars in this neighbouring galaxy much more clearly than ever before. The result is this record-breaking image — the biggest infrared image ever taken of the Small Magellanic Cloud — with the whole frame filled with millions of stars. As well as the SMC itself this very wide-field image reveals many background galaxies and several star clusters, including the very bright 47 Tucanae globular cluster at the right of the picture.
context_page_description: The Magellanic Clouds are two irregular, dwarf galaxies. They do not have a regular shape, and only have a few billion stars. The Magellanic Clouds can only be seen from the southern hemisphere. They orbit the Milky Way galaxy. They, along with the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy, are part of the Local Group of over 50 galaxies. The two clouds are known as the:
  Large Magellanic Cloud
  Small Magellanic Cloud
context_section_description: The Clouds can be easily seen without the use of a telescope. They look like separate pieces of the Milky Way. About 21° apart in the night sky, the real distance between them is about 75,000 light-years. They were long thought to be the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. The Canis Major Galaxy, discovered in 2003, is now thought to be our closest galaxy.
  The LMC is about 160,000 light years away, while the SMC is about 200,000. The LMC is about 14,000 light years in diameter, and  the SMC about 7,000. For comparison, the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across.
  Scientists believe that the shape of Magellanic Clouds has been caused by tidal interaction with the Milky Way as they travel close to it.  Streams of neutral hydrogen connect them to the Milky Way and to each other. Both Clouds look like they were once spiral in shape.  Their gravity has affected the Milky Way as well, distorting the outer parts of the galaxy's disc shape.
  They have a different structure and lower mass than our galaxy. There are two other big differences.  First, they are gas-rich; they have more hydrogen and helium compared to the Milky Way.  They are also more metal-poor than the Milky Way. The youngest stars in the LMC and SMC have less than half the amount of other elements.  Both are noted for their nebulae and larger numbers of young stars. Like our own Galaxy their stars range from the very young to the very old, which shows the Clouds have a long history.
  A supernova, SN 1987A, in the Large Magellanic Cloud was the brightest object seen from Earth in over four centuries.
  In 2010, a French scientist said that the clouds may have been ejected from a collision that formed the Andromeda Galaxy six billion years ago. However most astronomers believe the Magellanic Clouds were made in the same process that formed our Milky Way Galaxy.
caption: Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)
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