Amazing Space- Fast Facts: Large Magellanic Cloud

Name	Large Magellanic Cloud, LMC: named after the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, whose expedition first circumnavigated the globe between 1519 and 1522.
Description	The LMC has traditionally been classified as an irregular galaxy. However, new evidence points to it being a barred spiral galaxy. The LMC is a much smaller companion of our Milky Way Galaxy and is gravitationally bound to it. It is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. One of only three galaxies visible to the unaided eye, the LMC can be detected as an area of faint, diffuse starlight (appearing like a fuzzy glow in the sky) when viewed from dark locations in the Southern Hemisphere.
Location	The galaxy is in the constellation Dorado in the Southern Hemisphere.
Distance from Earth	160,000 light-years
Size	The visible portion of the galaxy is 17,000 light-years across.