What is the Large Magellanic Cloud?

Irregular dwarf galaxy, probably on its first pass by the Milky Way, easily visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere.

Worth knowing about the Large Magellanic Cloud

You see the Large Magellanic Cloud as it was about 160,000 years ago.

Why it stands out: Contains the Tarantula Nebula (the most active star-forming region in the Local Group) and hosted supernova SN 1987A.
What it is: An irregular dwarf galaxy — a small companion of the Milky Way with a lopsided bar and one spiral arm, not a neat spiral or ellipse.
Its name and its story: Named after Ferdinand Magellan, whose crew logged it in 1519–1522 — though Aboriginal Australian and Polynesian traditions had their own stories about it for millennia before.