... Visible predominantly from Earth's Southern Hemisphere , the LMC is the second closest galaxy , neighbor to the Small Magellanic Cloud , and one of eleven known dwarf galaxies that orbit our Milky Way Galaxy. The LMC is an irregular galaxy composed of a bar of older red stars, clouds of younger blue stars, and a bright red star forming region visible near the top of the above image called the Tarantula Nebula . ... Publications with keywords: Local Group of Galaxies - irregular galaxy - LMC . ...