Large Magellanic Cloud
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000–200,000 light‑years away in the southern constellations Dorado and Mensa. Roughly 10,000 light‑years across, it is rich in star-forming regions—such as the Tarantula Nebula—and contains billions of stars.
Source: science.nasa.gov
APODs including "Large Magellanic Cloud"
30 Doradus: The Tarantula Zone
12/12/2005
The Tarantula Nebula is more than 1,000 light-years across - a giant emission nebula within our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud. Inside this cosmic arachnid lies a central young cluster of massive stars, cataloged as R136, whose intense radiation and strong winds have helped energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. In this impressive color mosaic of images from the Curtis Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, other young star clusters can be seen still within the nebula's grasp. Also notable among the denizens of the Tarantula zone are several dark clouds, sprawling wispy filaments of gas, compact emission nebula, nearly spherical supernova remnants, and areas surrounding hot stars known as superbubbles. The rich mosaic's field of view covers an area on the sky about the size of the full moon in the southern constellation Dorado.