What are the Magellanic clouds composed of?

1 Answer

The Magellanic Clouds are galaxies, much like our own Milky Way Galaxy, so they are composed of stars, gas, and dust, and quite likely planets.

Explanation:

The Magellanic Clouds are galaxies, much like our own Milky Way Galaxy, so they are composed of stars, gas, and dust, and quite likely planets.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds:

Aside from their different structure and lower mass, they differ from our galaxy in two major ways. First, they are gas-rich; a higher fraction of their mass is hydrogen and helium compared to the Milky Way.[14] They are also more metal-poor than the Milky Way; the youngest stars in the LMC and SMC have a metallicity of 0.5 and 0.25 times solar, respectively.[15] Both are noted for their nebulae and young stellar populations, but as in our own galaxy their stars range from the very young to the very old, indicating a long stellar formation history (Chaisson and McMillan).