The Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA.
Large-Scale Structure: Your Place in the Universe
We have seen that
stars cluster together to form
galaxies. Galaxies also like to live together. There are clusters of galaxies called
Groups which contain 10's of galaxies. Our own galaxy, the
Milky Way lives in a group of about 30 galaxies, named the
Local Group.
There are much larger clusters of galaxies that contain from 50 - 1000's of galaxies. Groups and Clusters live together to form even larger clusters known as Superclusters. The Local Group belongs to the Local Supercluster. In between Superclusters are enormous voids of space where there are almost no galaxies at all.
The Largest structures discovered in the Universe are systems of voids and clusters. At this scale the Universe looks foamy. The voids look like huge bubbles. Galaxies line these bubbles forming filaments that connect Superclusters.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
The
Fall 2009 issue of The Earth Scientist, which includes articles on student research into building design for earthquakes and a classroom lab on the composition of the Earth’s ancient atmosphere, is available in our
online store.
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