NASA on November 14th release this article on whether the Large Magellanic Cloud is in orbit around the much larger Milky Way Galaxy or in actuality, is a survivor from a close encounter with the Milky Way. The article points out that the Large Magellanic Cloud has survived a passage near the Milky Way, which has blown away most of the spherical halo of gas that surrounds the LMC. However, not all the gas has been torn away, there is enough that the LMC is still making new stars. How do we know that? Because there are star forming regions still to be found in the LMC. A smaller galaxy would only have aging red stars left and in the LMC that is not the case.
However, the LMC for its mass, is about 10 times smaller than other galaxies of the similar mass. This shows most of the gas in the LMC has been blown away by the encounter with the Milky Way. The Milky Way in the article acts like a blow dryer, pushing a lot of the gas from the LMC out away from it and that gas will eventually come into the Milky Way. Fortunately for the LMC, not all of its halo will be lost so it will continue to make new stars as it moves away into deep space away from the Milky Way.
This image from the article shows what is meant from the research down from using Hubble.
I haven't done the article justice and invite you to click the link above and take 5 minutes to read the article. It is amazing to me how as we gather more knowledge about the universe around us, how our perception and paradigms and knowledge continue to grow and be expanded!
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