Portions of this entry contributed by Dana Romero

The Large and Small Magellanic clouds are actually satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way Galaxy and members of the local group, located at distances of about 55 and 65 kiloparsecs, respectively. Imaging of the light ring from Supernova 1987 establishes the distance as 163,000 ly away. Like the Small Magellanic Cloud, the Large Magellanic Cloud is visible only in the southern hemisphere. The Large Magellanic Cloud was originally thought to be an irregular galaxy, but later observations have shown a certain bar structure.

Large Magellanic Cloud, Local Group, Milky Way Galaxy, Small Magellanic Cloud