Large Magellanic Cloud – star density
Date: 25 April 2018
Satellite: Gaia
Copyright: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the nearest galaxies to our Milky Way, as viewed by ESA's Gaia satellite using information from the mission's second data release.
This view is not a photograph but has been compiled by mapping the total density of stars detected by Gaia in each pixel. It shows the large scale distribution of stars in the LMC, clearly delineating the full extent of the spiral arms. It is peppered with bright dots, which are faint clusters of stars, and shows the bar of stars that cuts across the LMC.
Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); A. Moitinho / A. F. Silva / M. Barros / C. Barata, University of Lisbon, Portugal; H. Savietto, Fork Research, Portugal.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO License. 
