Mapping the Magellanic Clouds: The 1001MC Stellar Survey

This episode explores a new five-year astronomical survey of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds using the 4MOST spectrograph on the VISTA Telescope.Led by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, the 1001MC project will collect high-resolution spectra from nearly 500,000 stars to reveal their motions, chemical composition, and history.We discuss how this data could answer long-standing questions about the formation and evolution of these dwarf galaxies, with full operations starting in 2026.Thank you for listening to Bedtime Astronomy — your guide to the cosmos. New episodes on space exploration, NASA missions & the latest astronomy breakthroughs.