An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A large cloud of faint stars extending eastward from the → Small Magellanic Cloud to the → Large Magellanic Cloud. The wing is in fact the tail of a much larger → neutral hydrogen structure linking the SMC to the LMC. Models and observations suggest that the structure known as the → Magellanic Stream results from the Clouds’ interaction with each other and the Milky Way. Several works support the finding that the SMC wing is pointing toward the LMC, and is therefore closer to us than the SMC bar.

See also: Named after the American astronomer Harlow Shapley (1885-1972), who discovered this structure (1940, Harvard Bull., 914, 8); → wing.