The Small Cloud of Magellan

The southern sky contains wonders almost unknown in the north. These wonders include the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds : small irregular galaxies orbiting our own larger Milky Way spiral galaxy . The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), pictured here, is about 250,000 light years away. The SMC contains many young, hot, blue stars indicating it has undergone a recent period of star formation, possibly due to a collision with the LMC 500 million years ago . The bright object on the right is a globular cluster near the outskirts of the Milky Way .