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Glite Dictionary
Large Magellanic Cloud

Large Magellanic Cloud

1 8.8
A nearby irregular galaxy visible from the southern sky that orbits the Milky Way
  • proper noun
  • /lɑrdʒ məˈdʒɛlənɪk klaʊd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : Gran Nube de Magallanes
  • Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, the Large Magellanic Cloud orbits the Milky Way.
  • Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)
  • nearby Large Magellanic Cloud
  • Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy

Examples

  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The radio colors of the Large Magellanic Cloud.

    Academic text (1996)

  • When a fifteen-solar-mass supergiant star detonated in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud in 1987, astronomers were delighted to have the chance to study a supernova "up close and personal."

    Academic text (1994)

  • SN1987A can be found in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

    Academic text (2005)

  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Above: The Large Magellanic Cloud.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The collaborations have seen more events toward the Galactic bulge and fewer toward the Large Magellanic Cloud than were expected.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The clusters are 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to our Milky Way.

    Blog text (19)

  • The cluster is located about 160,000 light-years away in a small satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud.

    Academic text (1990)

  • For comparison, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy companion to the Milky Way, is 14,000 light-years wide.

    Blog text (5)

  • The Milky Way appears to be snacking on matter from its satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and may eventually swallow the whole thing.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Located 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 30 Doradus resembles star-forming regions in our own galaxy, but on a much larger scale.

    Academic text (1994)

Surface Forms

Large Magellanic Cloud main

Morphology

large + Magellanic + Cloud

The phrase is partly analyzable from its parts: 'large' + 'Magellanic' (named after Magellan) + 'Cloud' suggests a big, named cloud-like object, so a learner who knows the constituents would infer a large celestial or cloud-like entity associated with Magellan. However, identifying it specifically as an irregular galaxy (the larger of two Magellanic Clouds) requires encyclopedic/world knowledge beyond the literal word meanings, so the meaning is not fully predictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Large Magellanic Cloud comes from early sailors who saw a faint, cloudy patch in the southern sky and named it after the explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Because it is the bigger of two such patches, people called it the Large Magellanic Cloud, so the name points to a nearby group of stars that looks like a cloudy patch in the sky.