As we all know that we are located in a part of the Milky Way and the Milky Way is a part of the supercluster of 100,000 galaxies that is stretched out over 520 million light-years known as the Laniakea.
In an interesting study, a team of scientists mapped out over eight thousand of these galaxies. The scientists state- the Earth’s galaxy itself lives on the edge of the Laniakea supercluster and this supercluster is much bigger than was assumed.
As stated by the National Geographic:
After examining the unusual motions of around 8,000 galaxies, Tully and his associates could identify which gravitational center was controlling the Milky Way and its galactic neighbors. They then handed-down this information to define the extent of the supercluster. Simply put, galaxies, whose motion is controlled by Laniakea’s Great Attractor— located in the direction of the constellation Centaurus— are part of the Laniakea supercluster.
Galaxies that are being pulled toward a different attractor are in a different supercluster (the next one over is called Perseus-Pisces), even if they’re right next to each other in the sky. Within the supercluster, galaxies are strung like beads on cosmic strings, each anchored to the Great Attractor. The Milky Way is at the fringe of one of those strings, perched on the edge of the Local Void—an area where, as the name suggests, there isn’t much to be found.
Laniakea, as its name describes- “immeasurable heaven” is much bigger than Astronomers have previously assumed so far. Moreover, the Laniakea is a home trillion of stars and over 100,000 galaxies. Although the immeasurable heaven is so gigantic, the question arises here; how did Tully and his colleagues figure out that this structure ever existed? Wanna know more on their discovery on Earth’s Official Address; watch the video below:
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Astronomers have spotted the BOSS Great Wall, it’s a vast superstructure of 830 galaxies that spans roughly 1 billion light years across and also represents the largest structure ever found in space. This ultimate BOSS Great Wall is two third times bigger than the Sloan Great Wall that was discovered in the year 2003.