An enormous chain of galaxies linked by their mutual gravity. Superclusters look as if they ride on the surfaces of bubbles. Our galaxy is a peripheral member of the Virgo Supercluster, centered around a giant elliptical galaxy M87. Luminous matter does not bind this cluster: Dark matter outweighs luminous matter 10 to 1. Our galaxy seems to be drifting toward the Virgo Supercluster at about 250 km/s.
An enormous chain of clusters of galaxies linked by their mutual gravity. Superclusters look as if they ride on the surfaces of bubbles. Our galaxy is a peripheral member of the Virgo Supercluster, centered around a giant elliptical galaxy M87. Our galaxy seems to be drifting toward the Virgo Supercluster at about 250 km/s. The gravity that binds the superclusters together is not luminous, but dark matter; in the Virgo Supercluster, there is ten times more dark matter than luminous matter.
A collection of clusters of galaxies.
a grouping of galaxy clusters pulled together by their mutual gravitational attraction to produce long, thin structures up to a few hundred megaparsecs long with large voids devoid of galaxies between the superclusters.
A cluster of galaxy clusters.
A large concentration of hundreds or thousands of groups of galaxies. Superclusters range in size from 100 million to 500 million light years and are usually embedded in large sheets and walls of galaxies surrounding large voids in which very few galaxies exist. Superclusters formed in the early universe when matter clumped together under the influence of gravity.
Grouping of several clusters of galaxies into a larger, but not necessarily gravitationally bound, unit.
A large region of space (more than 100 million LY across) where groups and clusters of galaxies are more concentrated; a cluster of clusters of galaxies.
A region of space where galaxies and clusters of galaxies are far more numerous than elsewhere. In a sense, a cluster of clusters of galaxies.
A supercluster is a huge group of up to a thousand galaxies. These tend to be shaped as flattened disks, sheets, or filaments. These superclusters then form surfaces like the surfaces of bubbles, with virtual voids in between. These may be the largest structures in the universe.
A connected group of clusters of galaxies that may extend for hundreds of millions of light-years.