MAGELLANIC CLOUD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Magellanic Cloud mean? 

• MAGELLANIC CLOUD (noun)
  The noun MAGELLANIC CLOUD has 1 sense:

1. either of two small galaxies orbiting the Milky Way; visible near the south celestial pole

  Familiarity information: MAGELLANIC CLOUD used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAGELLANIC CLOUD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Either of two small galaxies orbiting the Milky Way; visible near the south celestial pole

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Instance hypernyms:

extragalactic nebula; galaxy ((astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Magellanic Cloud"):

Large Magellanic Cloud (the larger of the two Magellanic Clouds visible from the southern hemisphere)

Small Magellanic Cloud (the smaller of the two Magellanic Clouds visible from the southern hemisphere)

 Context examples 

It is less than 2,500 light-years across, half the size of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.

(NASA's Great Observatories Team Up to Find Magnified and Stretched Image of Distant Galaxy, NASA)

The nearby dwarf galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a chemically primitive place.

(Stellar Embryos in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Contain Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules, National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

New images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other telescopes reveal a rich landscape of stars and glowing clouds of gas in one of our closest neighbouring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud.

(Dead Star Circled by Light, ESO)

The two faint glows are not single objects, but are actually composed of fourteen and ten individual massive galaxies respectively, each within a radius comparable to the distance between the Milky Way and the neighbouring Magellanic Clouds.

(Ancient Galaxy Megamergers, ESO)

Even though the Large Magellanic Cloud is one of our nearest galactic companions, we expect it should share some uncanny chemical similarity with distant, young galaxies from the early universe, said Marta Sewiło, an astronomer with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

(Stellar Embryos in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Contain Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules, National Radio Astronomy Observatory)