Large Magellanic Cloud in Neutral Hydrogen

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way. It, along with the Small Magellanic Cloud, revolve around our galaxy, and are gradually being torn apart by the interaction. The two of them are visible with the naked eye on dark summer nights as faint `clouds' to the south. In this image, which shows the neutral hydrogen gas content, the Large Magellanic Cloud is surprisingly circular in overall shape (in visible light, it is rather irregular). The gas, however, is pitted with bubbles and shells blown by clusters of large stars.

ATCA plus Parkes image in HI by S. Kim, L. Staveley-Smith, M. Dopita, K. Freeman, R. Sault, M. Kesteven, D. McConnell, M. Calabretta and R. Haynes.