The rotation of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), as determined from the the Gaia Data Release 2 mean proper motions of several million stars identified as members of the system. Proper motions of stars in the LMC, represented as vectors, are overlaid on a representation of the source density. Colour indicates the proper motion value (redder means higher value). This figure shows the clear consistent rotation measured by Gaia around the centre of the LMC.
Download larger image (PNG, 147 KB).
Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, Amina Helmi and co-authors of the paper "The kinematics of globular clusters and dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way".
Page last updated: 30 May 2018