- published: 19 Aug 2013
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The Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS) is a mass concentration of galaxies that contains the Virgo Cluster in addition to the Local Group, which in turn contains the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within its diameter of 33 megaparsecs (110 million light-years). It is one of millions of superclusters in the observable universe.
A 2014 study indicates that the Virgo Supercluster is only a lobe of a greater supercluster, Laniakea, which is centered on the Great Attractor.
Beginning with the first large sample of nebulae published by William and John Herschel in 1863, it was known that there is a marked excess of nebular fields in the constellation Virgo (near the north galactic pole). In the 1950s, French–American astronomer Gérard Henri de Vaucouleurs was the first to argue that this excess represented a large-scale galaxy-like structure, coining the term "Local Supergalaxy" in 1953 which he changed to "Local Supercluster" (LSC) in 1958. (Harlow Shapley, in his 1959 book Of Stars and Men, suggested the term Metagalaxy.) Debate went on during the 1960s and 1970s as to whether the Local Supercluster (LS) was actually a structure or a chance alignment of galaxies. The issue was resolved with the large redshift surveys of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which convincingly showed the flattened concentration of galaxies along the supergalactic plane.
Text at http://howfarawayisit.com/documents/ In this segment of our "How far away is it" video book, we cover our local supercluster, the Virgo Supercluster. We begin with a description of the size, content and structure of the supercluster, including the formation of galaxy clusters and galaxy clouds. We then take a look at some of the galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster including: NGC 4314 with its ring in the core, NGC 5866, Zwicky 18, the beautiful NGC 2841, NGC 3079 with is central gaseous bubble, M100, M77 with its central supermassive black hole, NGC 3949, NGC 3310, NGC 4013, the unusual NGC 4522, NGC 4710 with its "X"-shaped bulge, and NGC 4414. At this point, we have enough distant galaxies to formulate Hubble's Law and calculate Hubble's Red Shift constant. From a distance ladd...
Journey through our galactic neighborhood. It ends in the giant eliptical galaxy messier 87. The long overdue HD version is finally available. I added cool sci-fi music by Jerry Goldsmith (RIP). The piece comes from Total Recall and is called 'The mutant'. Narrated version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMXzlOEvINk
Journey through our galactic neighborhood. It ends in the giant eliptical galaxy messier 87. HD version available here: https://youtu.be/fZXgtw_XA3Q I added cool sci-fi music by Jerry Goldsmith (RIP). The piece comes from Total recall and is called 'The mutant'.
The "Virgo Supercluster" or the "Local Supercluster" is a mass concentration of galaxies that contains the Virgo Cluster in addition to the Local Group, which in turn contains the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within its diameter of 33 megaparsecs . It is one of millions of superclusters in the observable universe. A 2014 study indicates that the Virgo Supercluster is only a lobe of a greater supercluster, Laniakea, which is centered on the Great Attractor. Beginning with the first large sample of nebulae published by William and John Herschel in 1863, it was known that there is a marked excess of nebular fields in the constellation Virgo . In the 1950s, French–American astronomer Gérard Henri de Vaucouleurs was the first ...
Buy the entire album on Itunes. It's a wonderful Album :) All images are from the series itself and belong to their rightful owners. I own none of the images nor the music. -Itunes Link for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey (Music from the Original TV Series), Vol. 1 https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/cosmos-spacetime-odyssey-music/id833553177
Text at http://howfarawayisit.com/documents/ In this segment of our "How far away is it" video book, we cover the superclusters closest to our supercluster, Virgo. First we discuss the overall structure of the nearest 20 superclusters and illustrate the galactic structures of galaxy filaments, walls and voids including: the Sculuptor void; the Perseus-Pegasus filament; the Fornax, Centaurus, and Sculptor walls as well as the Great Wall or Coma wall. Then we take a look at several of these superclusters and some of the galaxies in each one we examine. We start with the Hydra Supercluster with the Hydra Galaxy Cluster at its center. We examine NGC 2314, a rare double aligned pair of galaxies. We then move to the Centaurus Supercluster with the Centaurus Galaxy Cluster at its center. We t...
SpaceMap. Discover the Universe around us from our planet to the outer bounds of the Virgo supercluster