Map of the Universe
Large Magellanic Cloud
Galaxy · Satellite galaxy of the Milky Way
About the Large Magellanic Cloud
The Large Magellanic Cloud is about 161,741 light-years from the Sun, so the light we see from it left about 161,741 years ago.
It is 160,057 light-years from the centre of the Milky Way.
The map lists it as a galaxy and shows it at the scale of the Milky Way and the Local Group, drawn on the plane of the Milky Way.
The largest satellite of the Milky Way, 161,700 light-years away (Pietrzyński et al. 2019), with about a tenth of the Milky Way's mass. Probably on its first pass around our galaxy.
Key numbers
| Distance | 161,741 light-years (49.59 kpc) |
|---|---|
| Distance from the Galactic centre | 160,057 light-years |
| Galactic coordinates | l = 279.98°, b = -33.73° |
| Absolute magnitude (V) | -18.1 |
| Stellar mass | 2.88 × 10⁹ suns |
| Half-light radius | 9,076 light-years |
Data: Local Volume Database v1.1.1 (Pace 2025).
Where it is
Its place in the universe, from the inside out: Milky Way › Local Group › Virgo Supercluster › Laniakea Supercluster › Observable universe.
Zoom out to see it in context: Magellanic Clouds, a view about 520,000 light-years across.
From Wikipedia
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a dwarf galaxy and satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around 50 kiloparsecs, the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and the possible dwarf irregular galaxy called the Canis Major Overdensity.
Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Large Magellanic Cloud, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nearby on the map
- Small Magellanic Cloud Galaxy
- Milky Way Galaxy
- Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Dwarf galaxy
- M54 Globular cluster
- Koposov 2 Globular cluster
- Balbinot 1 Globular cluster