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Story: Night sky

Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

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Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

The two smudgy areas in the southern night sky are not clouds, but companion galaxies of the Milky Way. They contain thousands of stars, star clusters and nebulae, all bound together by gravitational forces.

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Starry Night Photography

by Chris Picking

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How to cite this page

John Field and Maggy Wassilieff, Night sky – Galaxies, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/7925/large-and-small-magellanic-clouds (accessed 5 June 2026).

Story by John Field and Maggy Wassilieff, published 2 March 2009.