Cosmology, Page 91: [Previous Page] [Next Page] [Class Home Page] Textbook pages 439 - 450

The Local Scale and Structure

We have already discussed the members of our Local Group of Galaxies, all within about 1 million light years. The main members are shown below:

The Local Supercluster!
There are many small groups of galaxies, much like the Local Group, located nearby. The giant, 2000-galaxy, Virgo Cluster is about 65 million light years away. It is the center of some 50 nearby small groups of galaxies to the Virgo cluster that suggests that they all form an enormous flattened cluster of clusters; we call it the Local Supercluster.



The closest galaxy cluster to ours that is shown on this image is the M81 group.