Large and Small Magellanic Cloud images using Gaia DR3 data

This collection of images shows different views of the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC, respectively) using Gaia's astrometric and photometric information from the mission’s Data Release 3 (DR3). These views are not a photographs since has been compiled by mapping the total amount of radiation detected by Gaia in each pixel, combined with measurements of the radiation taken through different filters on the spacecraft to generate color information. We used the same approach as for the already well-known Gaia sky map and other LMC and SMC images that made use of Gaia data.

To establish a foundational point of reference, we start by presenting the Gaia DR3 base samples for LMC and SMC, acknowledging that these initial representations still incorporate Milky Way (MW) foreground contamination: