Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2019 September 5

                         The Large Cloud of Magellan
             Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

   Explanation: The 16th century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan
   and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during the
   first circumnavigation of planet Earth. As a result, two fuzzy
   cloud-like objects easily visible to southern hemisphere skygazers are
   known as the Clouds of Magellan, now understood to be satellite
   galaxies of our much larger, spiral Milky Way galaxy. About 160,000
   light-years distant in the constellation Dorado, the Large Magellanic
   Cloud (LMC) is seen here in a remarkably deep, colorful, image.
   Spanning about 15,000 light-years or so, it is the most massive of the
   Milky Way's satellite galaxies and is the home of the closest supernova
   in modern times, SN 1987A. The prominent patch below center is 30
   Doradus, also known as the magnificent Tarantula Nebula, a giant
   star-forming region about 1,000 light-years across.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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