AAO image reference UKS 16. « Previous || Next »
Top left is NE. Image width is about 24 arc min
Image and text © 1984-2010, Australian Astronomical Observatory
Photograph from UK Schmidt plates by David Malin.
This picture shows a scattered collection of nebulosities and star clusters stretching across the northern outskirts of our nearest extragalactic neighbour, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Within each red cloud of fluorescent hydrogen is a cluster of hot stars and in some cases these stars have begun to blow the surrounding gas away, occasionally producing vast bubbles and shells of nebulosity. When this process is almost complete, as it is in the upper part of the picture, large numbers of distinctly blue, very bright stars remain, some in the form of the very compact clusters which are typical of star formation in the LMC but unusual in the Milky Way.
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way, about 170,000 light years distant in the southern constellation of Dorado. Almost all the miriads of stars and star clusters seen here are part of the LMC. An exception is theta Dor, the bright yellow K2 star at the right of the image. It is about 500 light years distant.
Related images
AAT 33. The Henize 70 Nebula in the LMC
AAT 33a. The Henize 70 Nebula in the LMC (wide field AAT view)
UKS 14. The Large Magellanic Cloud
UKS 14a. The eastern end of the Large Magellanic Cloud
UKS 27. The Henize 44 nebula in the LMC
UKS 28. The Henize 55 nebula in the LMC
Constellation of Dorado (external site)
For details of object position and photographic exposure, search technical table by UKS reference number.