Virgo Supercluster
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The Virgo Supercluster or Local Supercluster is the supercluster of galaxies that contains the Local Group and with it our galaxy, the Milky Way. It has the pancake-like shape of a flattened disk, with a diameter of about 200 million light years. It contains about 100 groups and clusters of galaxies and is dominated by the Virgo cluster near its center. The Local Group is located near the edge and is drawn towards the Virgo cluster.
By tracking its gravitational effect on the movement of galaxies, one can estimate that the total mass of the Virgo Supercluster is about 1015 solar masses (2 × 1046 kg; see Orders of magnitude (mass)). As its luminosity is far too small for this number of stars, it is thought that a large part of its mass is dark matter.
The entire Virgo Supercluster is being pulled toward a gravitational anomaly known as the Great Attractor, which lies near the Norma cluster.
Clusters of the Virgo Supercluster
Sorted by the number of galaxies they contain with large apparent size:
- Virgo cluster
- Fornax cluster
- Local Group
- Eridanus cluster (sometimes considered part of Fornax)
- Ursa Major cluster
- Virgo II cluster (NGC 4697 Cluster)
- Canes II cluster
- Dorado cluster
- M83 group (Centaurus A or NGC 5128 Group)
- Leo I group (M96 group, including the M66 group)
- NGC 7582 cluster
- M81 group
- Canes I cluster
- NGC 5033 cluster
- NGC 2997 cluster
- NGC 1023 cluster
- Sculptor group
- M101 group (including the M51 group)
- NGC 6744 cluster
- Maffei Group
- Draco group
- Virgo III cluster (NGC 5364 group)
- Leo II cluster (very large but distant)
External links
- [The Virgo Supercluster] from An Atlas of the Universe
See also
| [[http://encycl.opentopia.com/ edit]]Milky Way |
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Galactic Core: Center of the Milky Way Spiral Arms: Carina Arm | Crux Arm | Cygnus Arm | Norma Arm | Orion Arm | Perseus Arm | Sagittarius Arm | Scutum Arm |
| Location: Universe | Virgo Supercluster | Local Group |
| Satellite galaxies: Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy | Carina Dwarf | Draco Dwarf | Fornax Dwarf | Large Magellanic Cloud | Leo I | Leo II | Sag DEG | Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy | Sextans Dwarf | Small Magellanic Cloud | Virgo Stellar Stream | Ursa Minor Dwarf |
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