Virgo Supercluster

The Virgo Supercluster or Local Supercluster is the galactic supercluster that contains the Local Group, the latter containing, in its turn, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies.

Disk and halo

The Supercluster consists of two components: disk component and halo component. The flattened disk component has a pancake-like shape, and contains 60% of the Virgo Supercluster's luminous galaxies. The halo component consists of many elongated objects, and contains the remaining 40% of the Virgo Supercluster's luminous galaxies.

Diameter

The diameter of the Supercluster is about 200 million light years; it contains about 100 groups and clusters of galaxies and is dominated by the Virgo cluster near its center. Our Local Group is located near the edge and is being drawn inward toward the Virgo cluster [This is due to the so-called Virgo-centric flow towards the center of the supercluster. For details, see [http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo.html] ] . It is still unclear if at some time in the far future, the Local Group and other galactic clusters will be "eaten" by the very massive Virgo A Galaxy [See "The Virgo Cluster and the Local Group of Galaxies" at [http://www.seds.org/messier/more/vir_loc.html] ] .

Mass

By tracking its gravitational effect on the movement of galaxies, one can estimate that the total mass of the Virgo Supercluster is about 10¹⁵ solar masses (2 × 10⁴⁶ kg; see Orders of magnitude (mass)). As its luminosity is far too small for this number of stars, it is thought that a large part of its mass is dark matter.

The entire Virgo Supercluster is being pulled toward a gravitational anomaly known as the Great Attractor, which lies near the Norma cluster.

Divisions

The Virgo Supercluster is subdivided into groups of clusters called galaxy clouds. Three clouds are on the disk component: Virgo cluster, Canes Venatici Cloud and Virgo II Cloud. The halo consists of many elongated clouds pointing toward the Virgo Cluster.

Component clusters and groups

Clickable maps

supergalactic coordinates (clickable map)

circle 473 220 33 Virgo clustercircle 339 230 16 Centaurus_A/M83_Groupcircle 349 252 15 M81 groupcircle 326 264 15 Maffei_Groupcircle 289 292 20 NGC 1023 Groupcircle 370 236 13 M101 groupcircle 347 299 20 NGC 2997 Groupcircle 405 238 20 Canes Venatici I Groupcircle 426 203 19 NGC 5033 grouprect 445 247 508 276 Ursa_Major_Clustercircle 391 270 18 Leo I Groupcircle 277 197 25 NGC 6744 Groupcircle 236 314 22 Dorado Groupcircle 518 87 40 Virgo III Groupscircle 526 225 20 NGC 4697circle 546 331 34 Leo II Groupscircle 165 194 27 NGC 7582poly 180 356 178 325 252 345 242 378 Fornax clusterpoly 176 357 239 379 214 413 162 381 rect 295 213 324 239 Local Grouprect 252 235 304 257 Sculptor group

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supergalactic plane (clickable map)

circle 333 283 20 NGC 55rect 399 299 419 325 Milky Waycircle 385 294 14 Large Magellanic Cloudcircle 429 267 20 NGC 3109circle 395 338 16 Messier 31circle 365 335 15 Messier 33circle 278 311 20 NGC 247circle 388 119 28 Circinus Galaxycircle 456 124 17 NGC 5128circle 494 161 20 NGC 5253poly 475 149 500 133 483 113 463 137 NGC 5102circle 440 165 28 NGC 5128 Groupcircle 368 206 27 IC4662circle 520 105 20 Messier 83rect 699 183 774 265 Virgo Clustercircle 433 65 22 ESO 274-01circle 266 177 22 NGC 1313circle 214 255 20 NGC 625circle 235 282 16 NGC 7793rect 435 80 472 107 NGC 4945circle 184 301 20 NGC 45circle 217 311 17 NGC 253circle 265 260 22 Sculptor Grouprect 368 268 412 284 Local Groupcircle 409 379 25 NGC 1569circle 296 280 17 NGC 300circle 424 418 20 IC 342rect 383 429 415 451 Maffei Groupcircle 325 442 20 NGC 404circle 272 508 20 NGC 784circle 397 510 20 Maffei Irect 353 456 413 478 Maffei IIrect 371 526 434 553 Dwingeloo 1circle 444 481 22 NGC 1560rect 510 417 537 434 Messier 81rect 527 433 578 443 IC 2574rect 500 434 515 450 Messier 82poly 516 434 521 456 554 456 552 447 533 445 523 435 NGC 3077circle 549 476 18 NGC 2976circle 604 440 22 NGC 4605circle 513 479 19 NGC 6503circle 583 410 13 NGC 5204circle 559 389 16 NGC 3738circle 512 401 14 NGC 4236rect 452 442 485 461 NGC 2366rect 451 420 484 440 NGC 2403rect 485 433 502 465 NGC4305circle 659 382 20 NGC5023rect 634 344 658 364 Messier 94circle 618 355 15 NGC 4244circle 594 337 13 NGC 4214circle 577 361 19 NGC 4449circle 615 319 17 NGC 4395rect 591 280 640 304 Canes I Grouppoly 528 393 542 392 558 411 525 414 M81 Group

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References

* Brent Tully: "The Local Supercluster", Astrophys. J., vol. 257, pp. 389-422 (1982)
* Oscar Monchito: "Superclusters and Other Stuff", Colton, vol. 12, pp. 124-118 (1992)

Further reading

* ASTRON. SOC. OF INDIA. BULLETIN V. 9, P. 1, 1981 ; [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1981BASI....9....1D The Local Supercluster of Galaxies] ; de Vaucouleurs, G. ; 1981BASI....9....1D

External links

* [http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/virgo.html The Virgo Supercluster] from "An Atlas of the Universe"

See also

*Large-scale structure of the cosmos
*Extragalactic astronomy