Cosmology, Page 92: [Previous Page] [Next Page] [Class Home Page] Textbook pages 439 - 450

The Scale and Structure of the Universe

To the right is a three-dimensional rendering of the structure of our local universe. At the center of this picture, is our Local Group of galaxies. True clusters of galaxies have thousands of galaxies like the Milky Way. While the VIRGO cluster is the closest major cluster of galaxies, a number of very large cluster structures are also seen (Perseus, Coma, etc). They all make up our Local Supercluster. The scale of this image to the right is several HUNDRED million light years in diameter. A 4 Billion Light Year slice of our Universe Astronomers have now measured the redshifts (=distance) of over 100,000 galaxies in a thin ribbon of the sky. The results show how galaxies are scattered in the universe out to 4 billion light years.

Huge clusters, long filaments, and empty voids measuring over 100 million light years across are visible in the resulting 2dF map, pictured below.