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Information about Supercluster

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A map of the nearest (to Virgo) Superclusters


See Supercluster (genetic) for use of the word in genetics.


Super clusters are large groupings of smaller galaxy groups and clusters, and are among the largest structures of the cosmos. The existence of superclusters indicates that the galaxies in our Universe are not uniformly distributed; most of them are drawn together in groups and clusters, with groups containing up to 50 galaxies and clusters up to several thousand. Those groups and clusters and additional isolated galaxies in turn form even larger structures called superclusters.

Once thought to be the largest structures in nature, superclusters are now understood to be subordinate to enormous walls or sheets, sometimes called "super cluster complexes", that can span a billion light-years in length, more than 5% of the observable universe. Super clusters themselves can span several hundred million light-years. The typical speed of a galaxy is about 1000 km/s. Hubble's law implies that typical galaxies would only move about 30 million light-years at that speed in a Hubble time of 1/H, which is approximately the age of the universe. While this is a huge distance in human terms, it is much smaller than the size of super clusters. In an expanding universe, saying that the distance d an object has moved equals its present velocity v times the elapsed time t underestimates d when t is not small compared to 1/H. The calculation above still gives some idea of how long it would take the normal movements of galaxies to form or obliterate these structures, and thus indicates their great age. When we observe super clusters and larger structures today, we learn about the condition of the universe when these super clusters were created. The directions of the rotational axes of galaxies within super clusters also gives us insight into the formation process of galaxies early in the history of the Universe.[1]

No clusters of super clusters are known, but the existence of structures larger than superclusters is debated (see Galaxy filament). Interspersed among super clusters are large voids of space in which few galaxies exist. Even though superclusters are the largest structures confirmed, the total number of superclusters leaves possibilities for structural distribution; the total number of super clusters in the universe is believed to be close to 10 million.

Super clusters are frequently subdivided into groups of clusters called galaxy clouds.

Nearby superclusters

Distant Superclusters

  • Pisces-Cetus Supercluster
  • Bootes Supercluster
  • Horologium Supercluster
  • Corona Borealis Supercluster
  • Columba Supercluster
  • Aquarius Supercluster
  • Aquarius B Supercluster
  • Aquarius-Capricornus Supercluster
  • Aquarius-Cetus Supercluster
  • Bootes A Supercluster
  • Caelum Supercluster
  • Draco Supercluster
  • Draco-Ursa Majoris Supercluster
  • Fornax-Eridanus Supercluster
  • Grus Supercluster
  • Leo A Supercluster
  • Leo-Sextans Supercluster
  • Leo-Virgo Supercluster
  • Microscopium Supercluster
  • Pegasus-Pisces Supercluster
  • Pisces Supercluster
  • Pisces-Aries Supercluster
  • Ursa Majoris Supercluster
  • Virgo Coma Supercluster

See also

External links

References

1. ^ Hu, F. X.; Wu, G. X.; Song, G. X.; Yuan, Q. R.; Okamura, S. (2006). "Orientation of Galaxies in the Local Supercluster: A Review". Astrophysics and Space Science 302 (1-4): 43-59. 
supercluster in population genetics research articles applies to proposed large groups of human mtDNA haplotype lineages, found by cluster analysis, that are thought to stem from a single distant most recent common ancestor, on a time scale of tens of thousands of years.
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Genetics is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.[1][2] Knowledge of the inheritance of characteristics has been implicitly used since prehistoric times for improving crop plants and animals through selective breeding.
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Galaxy groups and clusters are the largest gravitationally-bound objects. They form the densest part of the large scale structure of the Universe. In models for the gravitational formation of structure with cold dark matter, the smallest structures collapse first and eventually
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large-scale structure refers to the characterization of observable distributions of matter and light on the largest scales (typically on the order of billions of light-years).
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cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from a Greek term κόσμος meaning "order, orderly arrangement, ornaments," and is the antithetical concept of chaos.
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A galaxy (from the Greek root γαλαξίας, meaning "milky", a reference to our own Milky Way) is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter.
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The Universe is defined as the summation of all particles and energy that exist and the space-time in which all events occur. Based on observations of the portion of the Universe that is observable, physicists attempt to describe the whole of space-time, including all matter and
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1 light-year =
SI units
01015 m 01012 km
Astronomical units
0103 AU 0 pc
US customary / Imperial units
01015 ft 01012 mi
A light-year or lightyear (symbol:
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This article or section may contain inappropriate or misinterpreted which do not the text.
Please help [ improve this article] by checking for inaccuracies. This article has been tagged since October 2007.
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1 kilometre =
SI units
0 m 0106 mm
US customary / Imperial units
0 ft 0 mi
A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer, symbol km
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second (SI symbol: s), sometimes abbreviated sec., is the name of a unit of time, and is the International System of Units (SI) base unit of time.

SI prefixes are frequently combined with the word second to denote subdivisions of the second, e.g.
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Hubble's law is a statement in physical cosmology which states that the redshift in light coming from distant galaxies is proportional to their distance. The law was first formulated by Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason in 1929[1] after nearly a decade of observations.
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In physical cosmology, filaments are the largest known structures in the universe, thread-like structures with a typical length of 50 to 80 megaparsec that form the boundaries between large voids in the universe.
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A galaxy cloud is a group of galaxy clusters and a substructure of a supercluster. The Virgo superclusters contains besides the Virgo cluster the Canes Venatici Cloud and the Virgo II Cloud.
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The Virgo Supercluster or Local Supercluster is the galactic supercluster that contains the Local Group, the latter containing, in its turn, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies.
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Local Group is the group of galaxies that includes our galaxy, the Milky Way. The group comprises over 30 galaxies, with its gravitational center located somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.
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A galaxy (from the Greek root γαλαξίας, meaning "milky", a reference to our own Milky Way) is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter.
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Milky Way (a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn derived from the Greek Γαλαξίας (Galaxias) sometimes referred to simply as "the Galaxy"), is a barred spiral galaxy that lies with the Local Group of galaxies
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Virgo Cluster

Observation data
(Epoch J2000)
Constellation(s): Virgo & Coma Berenices
Right ascension: 12h 27m[1]
Declination:
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The Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster, or the Hydra and Centaurus superclusters, is a supercluster in two parts and the closest neighbour of Milky Way's Virgo Supercluster.
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The Perseus-Pisces Supercluster is one of the largest known structures in the universe. Even at a distance of 250 million light-years, this chain of galaxy clusters extends more than 40° across the northern winter sky.
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The Pavo-Indus Supercluster is a neighboring supercluster to the Local Supercluster containing Local Group, a group of galaxies that contains our home galaxy, Milky Way galaxy.
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The Coma Supercluster is a nearby supercluster of galaxies comprising the Coma Cluster (Abell 1656) and the Leo Cluster (Abell 1367). Located 300 million light-years from Earth, it is in the center of the Great Wall.
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The Shapley Supercluster is the largest concentration of galaxies in our nearby Universe that forms a gravitationally interacting unit, thereby pulling itself together instead of expanding with the Universe.
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The Horologium Supercluster (also known as Horologium-Reticulum Supercluster) is a massive supercluster, about 550 million light-years across and has a mass of 1017 solar masses.
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large-scale structure refers to the characterization of observable distributions of matter and light on the largest scales (typically on the order of billions of light-years).
..... Click the link for more information.
Galaxy groups and clusters are the largest gravitationally-bound objects. They form the densest part of the large scale structure of the Universe. In models for the gravitational formation of structure with cold dark matter, the smallest structures collapse first and eventually
..... Click the link for more information.
In physical cosmology, filaments are the largest known structures in the universe, thread-like structures with a typical length of 50 to 80 megaparsec that form the boundaries between large voids in the universe.
..... Click the link for more information.
A galaxy cloud is a group of galaxy clusters and a substructure of a supercluster. The Virgo superclusters contains besides the Virgo cluster the Canes Venatici Cloud and the Virgo II Cloud.
..... Click the link for more information.
A galaxy (from the Greek root γαλαξίας, meaning "milky", a reference to our own Milky Way) is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter.
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