Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster of Galaxies
Explanation:
It is not only one of the largest structures known -- it is our home.
The just-identified
Laniakea Supercluster
of galaxies contains thousands of galaxies that includes our
Milky Way Galaxy, the
Local Group of galaxies,
and the entire nearby
Virgo Cluster of Galaxies.
The colossal supercluster is shown in the
above computer-generated visualization, where green areas are rich with white-dot
galaxies and white lines indicate motion towards the supercluster center.
An outline of
Laniakea is given in orange,
while the blue dot shows our location.
Outside the orange line, galaxies flow into other galatic concentrations.
The
Laniakea Supercluster spans about
500 million light years and contains about 100,000 times the mass of our Milky Way
Galaxy.
The
discoverers of
Laniakea gave it a name that means "immense heaven" in
Hawaiian.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
