Thursday, September 4, 2014

Laniakea: "Immense Heaven" Is Our Home



I love this article (and the beautiful accompanying Nature video) on Laniakea -- the name given to the recently identified supercluster of galaxies in which our own Milky Way galaxy is suspended:

"This discovery clarifies the boundaries of our galactic neighborhood and establishes previously unrecognized linkages among various galaxy clusters in the local Universe. 

'We have finally established the contours that define the supercluster of galaxies we can call home,' said lead researcher R. Brent Tully, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. 'This is not unlike finding out for the first time that your hometown is actually part of a much larger country that borders other nations.'" 

To read the article and view the video, click here.