Description

A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way great spiral, approximately 160,000 light years from the edge of the Milky Way. The LMC, as it is known among astronomers, is the second or possibly third closest galaxy to the Milky Way. It is a small barred spiral, of the type known as SBm, a dwarf barred spiral. The category was named "Magellanic Spiral" after the prototype LMC, and is intermediate between a dwarf spiral galaxy and a dwarf irregular galaxy, the latter of which has essentially no morphology. SBm types often have curved-T-shaped spiral arms, coming off the ends of the bars.

The LMC is approximately 14,000 light years in diameter and has a mass of approximately 10 billion solar masses.