This is a collection of genuine photographs of the galaxies that make up our Local Supercluster. They’ve been shrunk down (albeit not to scale) and roughly positioned in relation to each other.
Clustering of galaxies appears to be the norm rather than the exception; roughly three-quarters of all galaxies are found in clusters. Many tiny clusters of galaxies, like as the Local Group, are seen in close proximity. The Virgo Cluster, a massive cluster of 2000 galaxies, approximately 65 million light years away. The Local Supercluster is named for the proximity of about 50 nearby tiny groups of galaxies to the Virgo cluster, which suggests that they all form one vast flattened cluster of clusters.
The Local Supercluster is frequently referred to as the Virgo Supercluster since it is centered around the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
Its equatorial plane is nearly parallel to our own Galactic plane.
With a diameter of nearly 100 million light years, our Supercluster has a combined mass of about 1015 times that of the Sun.
The Local Group, which is located on one of the Local Supercluster’s edges, appears to be rotating around its core at a rate of about 400 kilometers per second.
In This Article...
What is the distance between the nearest galaxy cluster and us?
Information regarding the distance The M81 group, which is 104,060,000,000,000,000,000 km (11 million light years or 3.3 Mpc) away, is the closest galaxy cluster to ours displayed on this photograph.
Is the Milky Way a Virgo Cluster member?
It’s time to broaden your horizons and study the Universe’s greatest structures: superclusters, which are huge groups of galaxies. There is nothing in the Universe that is bigger. The Virgo Supercluster is the supercluster in which we reside. It’s a massive cluster of over a million galaxies that stretches across a 110 million light-year swath of space.
Our Sun is one of the Milky Way’s members, and the Milky Way is part of the Local Group, a collection of galaxies. The Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum Galaxy are all huge spiral galaxies, with a few hundred dwarf galaxies thrown in for good measure. The Virgo Cluster has several members, including the Local Group. This galaxy cluster spans 15 million light-years and contains 1200-2000 galaxies. The Virgo Cluster is thus merely one of the Virgo Supercluster’s clusters.
Although astronomers realized we were among a supercluster of galaxies in the 1950s, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the Virgo Supercluster’s shape was sketched out; it has a flattened disk, similar to our own galaxy. The Virgo Cluster is an outlying group of the Virgo Supercluster, and our Virgo Cluster is one of them.
What is the location of the Virgo galaxy cluster?
The stars of the Big Dipper can be used to find Arcturus and Spica. The arc of the Dipper’s handle forms a curving line that leads to Arcturus and eventually Spica. These are the brightest stars along this imaginary line, and they’re easy to see even in less-than-ideal lighting.
With Arcturus and Spica, Denebola, Beta Leonis, forms a roughly equilateral triangle. It marks the tail of the celestial Lion and is located east of Regulus, Leo’s brightest star. The Sickle, a backward question mark formed by some of Leo’s brightest stars and resembling the Lion’s head and mane, is easily identified. Regulus is the brightest and easternmost of the three stars that form a triangle on the other side of Leo, while Denebola is the brightest and easternmost of the three stars that form a triangle on the other side of Leo.
Denebola has a visual magnitude of 2.1 and is a white A-type main sequence star. It’s also a member of the Great Diamond asterism, which includes Arcturus, Spica, and Cor Caroli, the brightest star in the Canes Venatici constellation. Between Denebola and the brighter Regulus, five other famous Messier galaxies can be found: Messier 65, Messier 66, Messier 105, Messier 95, and Messier 96.
The Spring Triangle’s Vindemiatrix, Epsilon Virginis, is near the center. With an apparent magnitude of 2.8, it is a yellow G-type massive star. After Spica and Porrima, it is the third brightest star in Virgo.
In the region between Vindemiatrix and Denebola, the Virgo Cluster galaxies can be viewed. The spring is the greatest time of year to observe galaxies from northern latitudes.
What galaxy cluster does our galaxy belong to?
a group of galaxies,
Hundreds to tens of thousands of galaxies are gravitationally bonded together in a cluster. X-ray emission from intergalactic plasma heated to tens of millions of degrees is common in large clusters of galaxies. Galaxies’ interactions with one another and with intracluster gas may also decrease galaxies’ own interstellar gas. The Milky Way Galaxy is part of the Local Group, which is located on the Virgo Cluster’s outskirts.
What galaxy is the next nearest to us?
The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is the nearest known galaxy to us, at 236,000,000,000,000,000 km (25,000 light years) from the Sun. At 662,000,000,000,000,000 miles (70,000 light years) from the Sun, the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy is the next nearest.
How far away is the Virgo Cluster’s center?
The Virgo Supercluster, which is 65 million light-years away and encompasses smaller groups and clusters of galaxies, including the Local Group, is centered on the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
What makes up the Virgo Cluster?
The Virgo Cluster is a poor, loosely packed, irregularly structured cluster of galaxies with a large density of spiral galaxies among the brilliant cluster members (see Fig. 1). (see Table 1). It represents the most frequent type of galaxy cluster, which is defined by these characteristics.
What are the five galaxies that are the closest to us?
The closest galaxies to Earth are listed in order of increasing distance. Many of the distances are simply estimates, and some could be off by as much as 50%. This list’s distance ranking should only be regarded as a guess. The units of measurement are light years (ly).
Are galaxies in close proximity to one another?
As stars collide with merging supermassive black holes, some will be blasted out of the galaxy, while others will be destroyed. And both galaxies’ delicate spiral structures will be shattered as they merge into a single, massive, elliptical galaxy. However, as terrifying as this seems, such a process is a normal aspect of galactic evolution.
This coming collision has been known to astronomers for some time. This is based on the relative directions and speeds of our and Andromeda’s galaxies. But, more crucially, astronomers observe galaxy collisions on a regular basis when looking out into the universe.
Galaxies circle around a common center and are kept together by mutual gravitation. Interactions between galaxies, particularly between big and satellite galaxies, are fairly common. This is frequently caused by galaxies drifting too close together, to the point that the satellite galaxy’s gravity attracts one of the massive galaxy’s primary spiral arms.
In other situations, the satellite galaxy’s course may cross with that of the main galaxy. Collisions could result in mergers if neither galaxy has enough momentum to continue moving after the collision. If one of the colliding galaxies is substantially larger than the other, the larger galaxy will remain mostly intact and preserve its shape, while the smaller galaxy will be shredded apart and absorbed by the larger galaxy.
In Virgo, how many deep sky objects are there?
Virgo is recognized for its galaxies, if we’re being honest. There are 200 deep-sky objects brighter than 13th magnitude in the constellation. Only one is a globular cluster, NGC 5634 (magnitude 9.5).