Europe's Quest for the Universe - Laboratoires de Recherche

Development of European Astronomy 23
The southern Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds (photo: C. Madsen). Just under
the Small Magellanic Cloud is the second brightest globular cluster 47 Tucanae, just
above the bar of the Large Cloud the Tarantula Nebula, a region of dense gas and
intense star formation. The dark area in the Milky Way is the “Coal Sack” due to a
nearby cloud of dust which blots out the stars behind it; at its top is the star α Crucis,
which with the three bright stars to the left constitutes the “Southern Cross”. The two
bright stars below the Coal Sack are α and β Centauri. Just outside this image to the
left are ω Centauri, the brightest globular cluster in the sky, and Centaurus A, the
nearest radio galaxy (Fig. IX, 1).