Large Magellanic Cloud

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, about 160,000 light-years away. It is the third closest galaxy, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy and Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. Its mass is about 10 billion solar masses, on the order of 1/100 as massive as the Milky Way, and it has around twenty billion stars. Its diameter is 32,000 light-years and it the fourth largest galaxy in the Local Group after Andromeda, the Milky Way, and the Triangulum Galaxy. It was formerly termed irregular, but is currently considered a single-armed spiral galaxy and a galaxy classification variant has been invented for its morphology: Magellanic spiral galaxy ("Magellanic" indicated by an appended lower-case "m"). Interaction with the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) appear to contribute to its irregularity. A stream of gas exists between it and the Small Magellanic Cloud which is a star-forming region. LMC characteristics:

• Dorado and Mensa - constellations.
• 05h23m34s - right ascension.
• -69deg45m36s - declination.
• 163,000 ly - distance.
• +0.13 - apparent magnitude.
• SB(s)m - type.
• 10 degrees - apparent dimension (angular diameter).