The Small Magellanic Cloud Galaxy—A Milky Way Neighbor: View from Chile

The Small Magellanic Cloud Galaxy—A Milky Way Neighbor: View from Chile

This image of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) was not taken with a telescope. It was captured using a camera and a wide-aperture telephoto lens. It was taken by Petr Horálek, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador. Petr captured this special image for almost four hours during a night spent under clear skies on Cerro Pachón in Chile. 

Distance from Earth: ~200,000 light-years

The Small Magellanic Cloud and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are the largest of the over sixty satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Satellite galaxies orbit around a host galaxy and are usually smaller than their host galaxy. The SMC was once even a satellite galaxy of the LMC. Unlike most of the other satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, the SMC is actively forming stars at a rapid pace, a process revealed by the blue light in this image. 

Cerro Pachón is a mountain in the foothills of Chile’s Andes range. Northern Chile offers examples of the clearest, driest, and darkest skies in the world. These conditions create ample opportunities for astrophotography and for addressing important questions about the Universe. 

The summit of Cerro Pachón is home to several telescopes operated by National Science Foundation NOIRLab including the SOAR Telescope, a part of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab; Gemini South, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the NSF; and NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the NSF and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE/SC).

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, extending along a narrow strip of land between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The country shared borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south.

Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)
Release Date: April 15, 2026

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