2024-01-12 18:37:10
Par Tristan Vey
Published 6 hours ago, Updated 6 hours ago
The Magellanic Clouds (the small and the large), two galaxies visible to the naked eye, occupy respectively 10 and 20 times the surface of the full Moon. Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO
An emblematic object of the southern sky, this large milky spot would be made up of two superimposed structures.
These are the most emblematic astronomical objects of the southern sky: the Magellanic Clouds (the small and the large) are two galaxies so close to us that they are visible to the naked eye and form two large milky spots on the celestial dome occupying respectively 10 and 20 times the surface of the full Moon. For all inhabitants of the Southern Hemisphere, and all astronomers, they are true superstars, just like the Milky Way or the Moon.
We might therefore reasonably think that we know a lot about them (and in some respects, we do). This is what makes this discovery so astonishing: the small Magellanic Cloud would not be a simple irregular galaxy containing 700 million to 1 billion stars, as we previously thought. It would in fact be made up of two large structures located exactly one behind the other, and separated by 16,000 light years.
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