January 24, 1998
On the day you were born, another consciousness opened inside the cosmos and began taking notes.
The Large Cloud Of Magellan (LMC)
Birthday · January 24, 1998
A little universe, just for you
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APOD published January 24, 1998. Credit: D. Malin (AAO), AATB, ROE, UKS Telescope. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Ferdinand 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, not visible to northern hemisphere dwellers, 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 Cloud (SMC) are joined to the Milky Way by a stream of cold hydrogen gas. 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.
Image credit: D. Malin (AAO), AATB, ROE, UKS Telescope