Facts about the Magellanic Clouds
- 09
Pulsars within the Large Magellanic Cloud spin at rates exceeding 700 rotations per second, among the fastest neutron stars detected in any nearby galaxy.
- 08
Tidal forces from the Milky Way have stretched the Small Magellanic Cloud into a distorted bar shape, elongating it across roughly 9,000 light-years.
- 07
Magellanic Cloud stars display unusual metallicity levels 0.5 times lower than our Sun, revealing their formation from primordial galactic material billions of years ago.
- 06
Only about 3 billion stars populate the Small Magellanic Cloud, making it roughly 10 times less massive than its larger companion galaxy.
- 05
Within 2 billion years, gravitational friction will cause both Magellanic Clouds to merge with the Milky Way galaxy in a process called galactic cannibalism.
- 04
Interactions with the Milky Way are pulling the Small Magellanic Cloud apart, causing it to lose stars and gas at a rate that will eventually destroy it within several billion years.
- 03
A bridge of hydrogen gas stretches between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, evidence of gravitational interaction occurring over millions of years.
- 02
The Large Magellanic Cloud's supernova SN 1987A, observed on February 23, 1987, was the brightest supernova visible from Earth in nearly 400 years.
- 01
The Large Magellanic Cloud orbits the Milky Way at approximately 160,000 light-years away and contains roughly 30 billion stars.