Map of the Universe

Small Magellanic Cloud

Galaxy · Dwarf irregular galaxy, satellite galaxy of the Milky Way

Open in the map →

Small Magellanic Cloud
Picture: ESA/Hubble and Digitized Sky Survey 2, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

About the Small Magellanic Cloud

The Small Magellanic Cloud is about 204,859 light-years from the Sun, so the light we see from it left about 204,859 years ago.

It is 196,386 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.

A dwarf irregular galaxy 203,700 light-years away, bound to the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is being torn apart and is really two structures about 5 kpc apart along our line of sight.

Key numbers

Distance204,859 light-years (62.81 kpc)
Distance from the Galactic centre196,386 light-years
Galactic coordinatesl = 301.49°, b = -44.67°
Absolute magnitude (V)-16.8
Stellar mass8.91 × 10⁸ suns
Half-light radius3,540 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 Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. Classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy, the SMC has a D25 isophotal diameter of about 5.78 kiloparsecs (18,900 light-years), and contains several hundred million stars. It has a total mass of approximately 7 billion solar masses.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Small Magellanic Cloud, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Nearby on the map