A Cosmic Breakthrough: Observing an Extragalactic Star’s Disc for the First Time
Rice astronomer helps find evidence of an accretion disk around a young star outside the Milky Way Astronomers have uncovered evidence of a rotating disc…
Large Magellanic Cloud News
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located approximately 163,000 light-years away from Earth. It is one of the closest galaxies to our own and is visible primarily from the Southern Hemisphere, appearing as a faint, cloud-like patch in the night sky. The LMC is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy, though it shows signs of a bar structure, and it is less massive and organized than spiral galaxies like the Milky Way. This galaxy is an important site for astronomical research because it hosts a variety of astronomical phenomena that are relatively close by cosmic standards, making them easier to study. These include supernovae, star-forming regions, and the Tarantula Nebula—one of the most active and luminous star-forming regions in the local group of galaxies. The LMC also plays a crucial role in refining our understanding of stellar evolution and cosmology, particularly through the observation of Cepheid variable stars, which are used to measure cosmic distances.
NASA’s Black Hole Orrery – Spectacular Visualization of 22 X-Ray Binary Systems That Host Black Holes
This visualization shows 22 X-ray binaries in our Milky Way galaxy and its nearest neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud, that host confirmed stellar-mass black holes….
Hubble Spots a Dazzling Cluster in the Cloud
This Picture of the Week shows an open cluster known as NGC 2164, which was first discovered in 1826 by a Scottish astronomer named James…
Hubble Explores the Formation and Evolution of Star Clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Just as people of the same age can vary greatly in appearance and shape, so do collections of stars or stellar aggregates. New observations from…
ESO Captures Dazzling Image of Newly-Forming Stars in the LMC
This dazzling region of newly-forming stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) was captured by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer instrument (MUSE) on ESO’s Very…
Astrophysicists Predict Milky Way is Headed For Catastrophic Collision
New research led by astrophysicists at Durham University, UK, predicts that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) could hit the Milky Way in two billion years’…
Large and Small Magellanic Clouds May Have Had a Third Companion
Astronomers believe two of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way—the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds—may have had a third companion. Research published today describes…
Murchison Widefield Array Maps Cosmic Rays In The Magellanic Clouds
A radio telescope in outback Western Australia has been used to observe radiation from cosmic rays in two neighboring galaxies, showing areas of star formation…
ALMA Discovers Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules in Nearby Galaxy
The nearby dwarf galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a chemically primitive place. Unlike the Milky Way, this semi-spiral collection of a…
Hubble Image of the Week – LMC and the Honeycomb Nebula
This Hubble image of the week shows one of the largest and most intense regions of active star formation and the intriguing structure of stacked…
Hubble Image of the Week – Glowing Gas and Dark Dust in the LMC
A newly released image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a maelstrom of glowing gas and dark dust within one of the Milky Way’s satellite…
New Deep View of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
This newly released ESO image reveals a new view of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Each of the thousands of spots in this new…
Hubble Image of the Week – The Stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud
This newly released Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 1854, a gathering of white and blue stars in the southern constellation of Dorado (The…
HESS Discovers New Gamma Ray Sources in Large Magellanic Cloud
The H.E.S.S. telescope system has discovered three extremely luminous gamma-ray sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Once again, the gamma-ray observatory H.E.S.S. has demonstrated its…
New Hubble Image of the Large Magellanic Cloud
This newly released Hubble image shows a small part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This stunning new Hubble image shows a small part of…
ESO’s Very Large Telescope Views the Dragon’s Head Nebula
A new ESO image explores the Large Magellanic Cloud and an area nicknamed the Dragon’s Head Nebula. The Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the…
ESO’s VLT Views Two Glowing Clouds of Gas
A new image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope reveals a closer look at NGC 2014 and its neighbor NGC 2020. ESO’s Very Large Telescope has…
Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud Recalculated, Improves Hubble Constant
By observing a rare close pair of stars, known as eclipsing binaries, a team of scientists recalculated the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, refining…