The Small Cloud of Magellan (SMC)
Almost unknown to casual observers in the northern hemisphere , the southern sky contains two diffuse wonders known as the Magellanic Clouds . The Magellanic Clouds are small irregular galaxies orbiting our own larger Milky Way spiral galaxy . The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), pictured here, is about 250,000 light years away and contains a preponderance of young, hot, blue stars indicating it has undergone a recent period of star formation. There is evidence that the SMC is not gravitationally bound to the LMC .