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How far away are the Magellanic Clouds from the Milky Way Galaxy?
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Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy (left), also known as M51, an Sc galaxy accompanied by a small irregular companion galaxy, NGC 5195 (right).
The Magellanic Clouds are two satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way Galaxy. While historical estimates once placed them closer, modern measurements indicate their distances from Earth as follows:
- The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is approximately 160,000 light-years away.1
- The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is approximately 190,000 light-years away.1
Because these distances are measured from Earth—which is a component of the Milky Way—these figures represent their approximate distance from our galaxy. Early 20th-century calculations by astronomer Harlow Shapley using Cepheid variable stars initially estimated the distance to be about 75,000 light-years, but contemporary observations have refined these values.12