Magellanic Clouds
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
two unequal masses of nebulous light conspicuously visible in the southern hemisphere, near the celestial south pole. In general appearance they resemble portions of the Milky Way, but their composition, when examined through powerful telescopes, is found to set them apart as entirely unique areas of the heavens. They are roundish in form, the larger cloud covering an area of about 42 square degrees, the lesser one 10 degrees. Much attention has been given by astronomers to these clouds, whose composition is extraordinarily complex, comprising nebular and stellar structures which in other parts of the heavens are not found together. Recent estimates of the distance and dimensions of the larger Magellanic Cloud make the former 35,000 parsecs (110,000 light years) and the latter (greatest linear diameter) 4,500 parsecs or 15,000 light years. The comparative parative brightness of the clouds may be judged from the fact that strong moonlight entirely obliterates the lesser, while leaving the greater cloud slightly visible. MANDATES. The objections made by the United States government in February and April, 1921, to certain features of several League mandates were re- LUXEMBURG: Grand Duchy. An agreement of economic union with Belgium went into effect May 1, 1922. Customs duties abolished between the two countries, Luxemburg adopting the Belgian tariff. Belgian commercial treaties, monetary system, and railroad operation extended to embrace Luxemburg, which, however, retained its political sovereignty. M moved by subsequent negotiations, except in the case of Mesopotamia or Irak, and the whole mandate system, with this exception, was finally approved and put in force by the Council of the League in July, 1922. In general, the United States obtained for its nationals equal rights and opportunities in mandated territories with the nationals of members of the League of Nations. An important resolution of the Third League Assembly defined the right of petition for mandated territories, prescribing that appeals from the peoples of such territories be sent to the Permanent Mandate Commission.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 called them "entirely unique areas of the heavens" and put the larger cloud at 35,000 parsecs — a bold figure for the time, and one that already implied something far outside our own star system. Both are now understood as dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, the Large Cloud about 50,000 parsecs (roughly 160,000 light years) away and the Small Cloud somewhat farther, connected to each other and to us by a vast trail of hydrogen gas, the Magellanic Stream, found by radio astronomers in the 1970s. Their variable stars had in fact already made them the most important patch of sky in astronomy: Henrietta Leavitt's period–luminosity relation, drawn from Cepheids in the Small Cloud, became the yardstick for measuring the universe. In February 1987 the Large Cloud produced SN 1987A, the nearest supernova observed since 1604 and the first from which neutrinos were ever detected.
Written for this edition, 2026.