Sunday, September 7, 2014

Laniakea

This is amazing scientific news. In a recent study for Nature, scientists R. Brent Tully, Hélène Courtois, Yehuda Hoffman, and Daniel Pomarède at the University of Hawaii mapped thousands of galaxies in the immediate vicinity of our own Milky Way, and discovered that we are part of a truly massive "supercluster" of galaxies that they named Laniakea (which means "immeasurable heavens" in Hawaiian).


They also mapped galaxies expanding outward and galaxies which are being pulled toward each other. After mapping their trajectories, they discovered these galaxies, including our own, are being pulled toward a mysterious, super-dense area called "The Great Attractor."


And in another mind-boggling leap, our supercluster structure Laniakea borders another supercluster structure called Perseus-Pisces! I think it is astounding how the structures almost mirror each other, as though a supercluster of galaxies naturally take a certain shape...


http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7516/full/nature13674.html#videos

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