Explanation : Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during their famous voyage around the world. As a result, two fuzzy cloud like objects in the southern sky are now known as the Clouds of Magellan. These star clouds are small irregular galaxies , satellites of our larger Milky Way spiral galaxy . The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) pictured above is only about 180,000 light-years distant - the only known galaxy closer is the Sagittarius Dwarf . Both the LMC and the Small Magellanic Clouds (SMC) are joined to the Milky Way by a stream of cold hydrogen gas whose origin is still controversial. An unusual effect called gravitational lensing has recently been detected in a few LMC stars , and there is hope this could tell us important information about the true composition of our universe.
Media Credits & Attribution
The Large Cloud of Magellan (LMC) Credit: Photograph made from plates taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope. Color photography by David Malin. Copyright: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board