The LMC is about one-hundredth the size of the Milky Way
Our galaxy holds a number of smaller galaxies in orbit around it. Many of these are little more than sparse clouds of stars, but the biggest and brightest are substantial irregular galaxies with abundant star formation. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) even shows hints of a bar and spiral structure. The LMC and Small Magellanic Cloud lie about 160,000 and 210,000 light years from Earth and are currently in an unusually close approach to the Milky Way, resulting in distortion to their shapes and leaving a trail of gas known as the Magellanic Stream along their path.