| |
| | The Small Magellanic Cloud, SMC |
 | | Like its larger apparent neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud was certainly known to the ancient southerners, and was probably mentioned by Amerigo Vespucci in a letter written during his third voyage about 1503-4, but became known to us only when Magellan went on his journey around the world, in 1519. |
 | | The main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud has been assigned NGC 292 in Dreyer's catalog, which is now sometimes used for this galaxy. |
 | | In addition, many clusters and nebulae which are members of this galaxy have been given their own NGC numbers. |
| www.seds.org /messier/xtra/ngc/smc.html (448 words) |
|