Figure 16-13 RIVUXG Irregular Galaxies (a) At a distance of only 179,000 light-years, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), an Irr I irregular galaxy, is passing close to our Milky Way Galaxy. About 62,000 light-years across, the LMC spans 22° across the sky, about 44 times the angular size of the full Moon. Note the huge H II region (called the Tarantula Nebula or 30 Doradus). Its diameter of 800 light-years and mass of 5 million solar masses make it the largest known H II region. (b) The small irregular (Irr II) galaxy NGC 4485 interacts with the highly distorted Sc galaxy NGC 4490, also called the Cocoon Galaxy. This pair is located in the constellation Canes Venatici.