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[[File:165850main pia09071-516.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Stellar Debris in the Large Magellanic Cloud]]

[[File:B01Magellanic Clouds.jpg|right|250px|thumb|The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (the LMC and SMC, respectively). Image taken by the European Southern Observatory[http://www.eso.org/public/]]]

The '''Magellanic Clouds''' are two nearby irregular [[galaxy|dwarf galaxies]] that are visible in the southern night sky, which are part of our [[Local Group]] of galaxies.  They are referred to individually as the '''Large Magellanic Cloud''' (LMC) and the '''Small Magellanic Cloud''' (SMC).  Traditionally though to be satellite galaxies, gravitationally bound to the [[Milky Way]], more recent observations have challenged that long held notion.

The '''Magellanic Clouds''' are two nearby irregular [[galaxy|dwarf galaxies]] that are visible in the southern night sky, which are part of our [[Local Group]] of galaxies.  They are referred to individually as the '''Large Magellanic Cloud''' (LMC) and the '''Small Magellanic Cloud''' (SMC).  Traditionally though to be satellite galaxies, gravitationally bound to the [[Milky Way]], more recent observations have challenged that long held notion.

==History of Observation==

==History of Observation==

 

As the Magellanic Clouds appear as visible, misty patches in the night sky to the unaided eye, they have been known since the dawn of history to the people of the Southern hemisphere and even as far north as 12^o Northern latitude.  The people of [[Polynesia]] referred to the galaxies as ''Mahu''. The first known recorded mention of the two galaxies is by [[Persian]] [[astronomer]] [[Al Sufi]] in 964 in his record known as the ''Book of Fixed Stars'', naming them ''al-Bakr'', or "the White Ox".<ref name="lore">http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Nubeculae_Magellani*.html</ref>

As the Magellanic Clouds appear as visible, misty patches in the night sky to the unaided eye, they have been known since the dawn of history to the people of the Southern hemisphere and even as far north as 12^o Northern latitude.  The people of [[Polynesia]] referred to the galaxies as ''Mahu''. The first known recorded mention of the two galaxies is by [[Persian]] [[astronomer]] [[Al Sufi]] in 964 in his record known as the ''Book of Fixed Stars'', naming them ''al-Bakr'', or "the White Ox".<ref name="lore">http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Nubeculae_Magellani*.html</ref>