Hunting Cosmic Fireworks in the Magellanic Clouds

These star-forming regions found within the Large Magellanic Cloud are packed with young, massive stars, leading to strong emissions from surrounding clouds of hot gas. (Credit: SMASH survey) The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are two of the most stunning naked-eye sights you can spot in the southern sky. Over the past few billion years, these two satellite galaxies of the Milky Way have been locked in a complex dance that has led to numerous interactions between them. And each time they get close, their gravitational forces disrupt the gas clouds within them, spawning the formation of thousands of new star clusters. Now, astronomers need your help to track down all these relatively faint clusters.