Large Magellanic Cloud

The galaxies are never alone, even so big cosmic structures have their own “satellites”. In case of the our galaxy Milky Way, the biggest satellite galaxy is the Large Magellanic Cloud which can be easy visible by the naked eye from the southern hemisphere.

Even if this galaxy was good know by the Persian and others observers from the Africa thousands years ago, first famous notes in wester world comes from Ferdinand Magellan. That’s the reason why this galaxy is named from him. It is 163 000 light years away from Earth and cover around space on the sky with radius of 10 degrees what cover around 20 times the Moon’s diameter. The brightest nebula on the right part of the photograph is the Tarantula Nebula, the big ionized hydrogen region. This photograph was taken in Namibia, under the one of the darkest sky on the Earth.

Author of the photo: Bartosz Wojczyński. Astronomy lover with over ten years of experience in the field of astrophotography. Winner of many prestigious awards, incl. Astrobin Image of the Day and NASA APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). Organizer of astrophotographic expeditions to the darkest places on our planet. Bartosz appreciates versatility and diversity – his photographic output includes both deep sky photos, extreme close-ups of the moon, and astroscapes that show the beauty of outer space in a wide field. On a daily basis he works as a specialist in image processing and 3D graphics.