Showing posts with label discovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discovery. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Welcome to Laniakea: Galactic Super-cluster where our Milky way resides in + video




  • Laniakea means 'immeasurable heaven' in Hawaiian - and it measures 500 million light years across and contains 100,000 galaxies.


  • It may not be stamped in your passport, but everyone on Earth is now officially a citizen of Laniakea.
    That is the name scientists have given the gigantic super-cluster of galaxies that contains our own Milky Way, which is revealed in a stunning new 3D animation.
    The word means 'immeasurable heaven' in Hawaiian - an appropriate description for a structure 500 million light years across that contains 100,000 galaxies and the mass of a hundred quadrillion suns.


  • Word means 'immeasurable heaven' in Hawaiian 
  • Structure is 500 million light years across 
  • Contains 100,000 galaxies and the mass of a hundred quadrillion suns
  • Around Laniakea are four neighbouring superclusters known as Shapley, Hercules, Coma and Perseus-Pisces 
  • First supercluster to have its size mapped by astronomers.