Laniakea Supercluster

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Laniakea.
Laniakea Supercluster
H0 from Planck 2013)
Binding mass1×1017[1] M☉
Other designations
Local Supercluster, Laniakea, Laniakea Supercluster, Laniakea Complex
See also: Galaxy group, Galaxy cluster, List of galaxy groups and clusters

The Laniakea Supercluster (/ˌlɑːni.əˈkeɪ.ə/; Hawaiian for "open skies" or "immense heaven")[2] is the galaxy supercluster that is home to the Milky Way and approximately 100,000 other nearby galaxies.

It was defined in September 2014, when a group of astronomers including

Université Paris-Saclay published a new way of defining superclusters according to the relative velocities of galaxies.[3][4] The new definition of the local supercluster subsumes the prior defined local supercluster, the Virgo Supercluster, as an appendage.[5][6][7][8][9]

Follow-up studies suggest that the Laniakea Supercluster is not gravitationally bound. It will disperse rather than continue to maintain itself as an overdensity relative to surrounding areas.[10]

Name

The name laniākea (

Kapiolani Community College.[11] The name honors Polynesian navigators, who used knowledge of the sky to navigate the Pacific Ocean.[12]

Characteristics

A video showing in 3D Laniakea and other nearby superclusters of galaxies

The Laniakea Supercluster encompasses approximately 100,000 galaxies stretched out over 160 

Horologium Supercluster.[3]
It consists of four subparts, which were known previously as separate superclusters:

The most massive galaxy clusters of the Laniakea Supercluster are Virgo, Hydra, Centaurus, Abell 3565, Abell 3574, Abell 3521, Fornax, Eridanus, and Norma. The entire supercluster consists of approximately 300 to 500 known galaxy clusters and groups. The real number may be much larger because some of these are traversing the Zone of Avoidance, an area of the sky that is partially obscured by gas and dust from the Milky Way galaxy, making them essentially undetectable.

Superclusters are some of the universe's largest structures and have boundaries that are difficult to define, especially from the inside. Within a given supercluster, most galaxy motions will be directed inward, toward the center of mass. This gravitational focal point, in the case of Laniakea, is called the Great Attractor, and influences the motions of the Local Group of galaxies, where the Milky Way galaxy resides, and all others throughout the supercluster. Unlike its constituent clusters, Laniakea is not gravitationally bound and is projected to be torn apart by dark energy.[7]

Although the confirmation of the existence of the Laniakea Supercluster emerged in 2014,[3] early studies in the 1980s already suggested that several of the superclusters then known might be connected. For example, South African astronomer Tony Fairall stated in 1988 that redshifts suggested that the Virgo and Hydra–Centaurus superclusters may be connected.[14]

Location

A map of superclusters within the nearby universe, with Laniakea shown in yellow

The neighboring superclusters to the Laniakea Supercluster are the

Hercules Supercluster, Coma Supercluster, and Perseus–Pisces Supercluster. The edges of the superclusters and Laniakea were not clearly known at the time of Laniakea's definition.[6] Since then, the study of the edges of the supercluster and of structures beyond them has substantially improved.[15][16]

Laniakea is itself a constituent part of the Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, a galaxy filament.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Milky Way's 'City' Just Got a New Name". Bloomberg.com. CityLab. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  2. ^ Taylor, Charles (2014). Science Encyclopedia. Kingfisher.
  3. ^
    S2CID 205240232
    .
  4. PMID 25186896
    .
  5. ^ "Newly identified galactic supercluster is home to the Milky Way". National Radio Astronomy Observatory. ScienceDaily. 3 September 2014.
  6. ^ a b Irene Klotz (2014-09-03). "New map shows Milky Way lives in Laniakea galaxy complex". Reuters.
  7. ^
    doi:10.1038/nature.2014.15819
    .
  8. New York Times
    . Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  9. ^ Carlisle, Camille M. (3 September 2014). "Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  10. S2CID 119195010
    .
  11. ^ "Multimedia Gallery – | NSF – National Science Foundation".
  12. ^ "Astronomers define boundaries of our home supercluster and name it Laniakea | EarthSky.org". earthsky.org. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  13. ISBN 978-1-4613-9358-0. Archived from the original
    on 9 June 2018. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  14. doi:10.1093/mnras/230.1.69
    .
  15. ^ "Astronomers map massive structure beyond Laniakea Supercluster | University of Hawaiʻi System News". University of Hawaii News. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  16. S2CID 220425419
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Laniakea Supercluster.
  • Vimeo, "Laniakea Supercluster", Daniel Pomarède, 4 September 2014—video representation of the findings of the discovery paper
  • YouTube, "Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster", Nature Video, 3 September 2014—Redrawing the boundaries of the cosmic map, they redefine our home supercluster and name it Laniakea.
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