page_title: S Doradus
section_title: Surroundings
hierarchical_section_title: S Doradus / Surroundings
caption_attribution_description: English: This image shows the entire Large Magellanic Cloud, with some of the brightest objects marked. The field of the new MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope image is indicated with an outline. The field of view is about ten degrees across.
context_page_description: S Doradus is located 160,000 light-years away, and is one of the brightest stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of the Milky Way. It is a luminous blue variable and one of the most luminous stars known, having a luminosity varying widely above and below 1,000,000 times the luminosity of the Sun, but so far away that it is invisible to the naked eye.
context_section_description: S Doradus is the brightest member of the open cluster NGC 1910, also known as the LH41 stellar association, visible in binoculars as a bright condensation within the main bar of the LMC. This is within the N119 emission nebula, which has a distinctive spiral shape. It is one of the visually brightest individual stars in the LMC, at some times the brightest.  There are only a handful of other 9th magnitude stars in the LMC, such as the yellow hypergiant HD 33579.
  There are several compact clusters near S Doradus, within the general NGC 1910/LH41 association. The closest is less than four arc-minutes away, contains two out of the three WO stars in the entire LMC, and the entire cluster is about the same brightness as S Doradus.  A little further away is NGC 1916.  Another LBV, R85, is just two arc-minutes away. This rich star-forming region also hosts a third Wolf–Rayet star, at least 10 other supergiants, and at least 10 class O stars.
  S Doradus has a number of close companion stars. The Washington Double Star Catalog lists two 11th magnitude stars 5" away, which at the distance of the LMC is about four light years. A much closer companion has been found using the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor, 1.7" away and four magnitudes fainter.  There are other nearby stars, most notably a 12th magnitude OB supergiant at 13".
caption: Large Magellanic Cloud.  NGC 1910 is labelled near the centre of the image, and S Doradus is clearly visible at full size. (Credit: Robert Gendler/ESO)
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "This image shows the entire Large Magellanic Cloud, with some of the brightest objects marked. The field of the new MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope image is indicated with an outline. The field of view is about ten degrees across."}