Laniakea Supercluster

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It is a home that has been hiding in plain sight, colossal and all around us, yet unnoticed by previous astronomical surveys. ~ Nature

The Laniakea Supercluster (Hawaiian: Laniakea "immeasurable heaven"; lani for heaven + akea for immeasurable or spacious) is the galaxy supercluster that is home to the Milky Way, the Solar System and the Earth. It consists of three regions, which were previously designated as separate superclusters:

Quotes[edit]

Astronomers have mapped the cosmic watershed in which our Milky Way Galaxy is a droplet.
Scientists previously placed the Milky Way in the Virgo Supercluster, but under Tully and colleagues' definition, this region becomes just an appendage of the much larger Laniakea. ~ Elizabeth Gibney
We have finally established the contours that define the supercluster of galaxies we can call home… ~ R. Brent Tully
  • Astronomers have mapped the cosmic watershed in which our Milky Way Galaxy is a droplet. The massive structure, which the research team dubs the Laniakea Supercluster, extends more than 500 million light-years and contains 100,000 large galaxies.
    The work, published in the September 4th Nature, is the first to trace our local supercluster on such a large scale. It also provides a physical way to define what a supercluster actually is.
  • This week, scientists add a new line to our planetary coordinates: the Laniakea galaxy supercluster.
    Do not bother googling the name. It really is brand new, coined by an international group of astronomers … Our place in the Universe, for so long one of the core mysteries of human existence that scientists and this journal are dedicated to unravelling, just got a little clearer. Laniakea, the scientists write, is our home supercluster, the one in which the Milky Way resides.
    What kind of home is it? It is big — some 160 million parsecs across. Although not as big as some superclusters, it is the largest in our local neighbourhood, which is surprisingly crowded given the vast emptiness of most of the cosmological void. It is a home that has been hiding in plain sight, colossal and all around us, yet unnoticed by previous astronomical surveys. …The name Laniakea has Hawaiian roots, and roughly translated means spacious heaven. It is a beautiful address to have. And one that comes just in time for the new school year and a new curious generation.

External links[edit]

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