Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.
2019 August 6
The Local Void in the Nearby Universe
Image Credit: R. Brent Tully (U. Hawaii) et al.
Explanation: What does our region of the Universe look like? Since
galaxies are so spread out over the sky, and since our Milky Way Galaxy
blocks part of the distant sky, it has been hard to tell. A new map has
been made, however, using large-scale galaxy motions to infer what
massive objects must be gravitating in the nearby universe. The
featured map, spanning over 600 million light years on a side, shows
that our Milky Way Galaxy is on the edge of the Virgo Cluster of
Galaxies, which is connected to the Great Attractor -- an even larger
grouping of galaxies. Also nearby are the massive Coma Cluster and the
extensive Perseus-Pisces Supercluster. Conversely, we are also on the
edge of huge region nearly empty of galaxies known as the Local Void.
The repulsive push by the Local Void combined with the gravitational
pull toward the elevated galaxy density on the other side of the sky
explains part of the mysteriously high speed our Galaxy has relative to
the cosmic microwave background -- but not all. To explore the local
universe yourself, as determined by Cosmicflows-3, you are invited to
zoom in and spin around this interactive 3D visualization.
Tomorrow's picture: jupiter's jaws
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
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