Superclusters - History, Large Scale Structures
clusters galaxies stars voids
Superclusters are currently the largest structures known in the universe. Stars and clusters of stars group together into galaxies that can contain anywhere from a few million to a few trillion stars. Galaxies collect into groups known as clusters of galaxies. On a larger scale superclusters are clusters of clusters of galaxies. As clusters of galaxies group into superclusters they leave empty spaces called voids between the superclusters. Superclusters and voids typically extend for hundreds of millions of light-years.
Additional Topics
In 1924 Edwin Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named) proved that there were indeed galaxies outside the Milky Way. The groupings of galaxies in the sky were so obvious that the existence of clusters of galaxies was accepted immediately. The existence of superclusters is less obvious. Finding the distances to galaxies, and their three dimensional distribution in space is difficult…
Since the 1970s large scale structure surveys have provided a picture of the superclusters and voids in the universe. All major known clusters of galaxies and at least 95% of all galaxies are found in superclusters. The voids between superclusters may contain faint galaxies but no bright galaxies. The voids tend to be spherical but superclusters are not. Superclusters have long filamentary or shee…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments