Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2025

24 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 ASTRO PUBLISHING Hubble sees remnants of LMC’s gas halo T he Large Magellanic Cloud, also called the LMC, is one of the Milky Way galaxy’s near- est neighbours. This dwarf galaxy looms large in the southern night- time sky at 20 times the apparent diameter of the full Moon. Many researchers theorise that the LMC is not in orbit around our gal- axy, but is just passing by. Those sci- entists think that the LMC has just completed its closest approach to the much more massive Milky Way. by NASA/ESA Bethany Downer T his artist’s concept shows a closeup of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy that is one of the Milky Way galaxy’s near- est neighbours. Scientists think that the LMC has just completed its closest approach to the much more massive Milky Way. The bright purple bow shocks represent the leading edge of the LMC’s halo, which is being com- pressed as the Milky Way’s halo pushes back against the incoming LMC. The pressure is stripping much of the LMC’s halo and blowing it backward into a streaming tail of gas. The dwarf galaxy is cocooned within its remaining halo. An actual science image of the LMC is combined with an artist’s rendering of the galaxy’s halo. [NASA, ESA, R. Crawford (STScI)]