The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of 50 kiloparsecs (≈163,000 light-years), the LMC is the third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way. The LMC has a diameter of about 14,000 light-years (4.3 kpc) and a mass of approximately 10 billion Sun masses In the past, the LMC was often considered an irregular type galaxy. However, it is now recognized as a disrupted barred spiral galaxy.It is visible as a faint "cloud" in the night sky of the southern hemisphere straddling the border between the constellations of Dorado and Mensa, and it appears from Earth more than 20 times the width of the full moon. (text adapted from Wikipedia-The free Encyclopedia).