Welcome To Laniakea, Our New Cosmic Home

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 3, 2014 @06:26AM from the where-the-cosmic-heart-is dept.

astroengine writes Using a new mapping technique that takes into account the motions — and not just the distances — of nearby galaxies, astronomers discovered that the Milky Way is located in the suburb of a massive, previously unknown super-cluster they named Laniakea, a term from Hawaiian words meaning "immeasurable heaven." Actually, Laniakea's girth is measurable, though difficult to conceptualize. The super-cluster spans 520 million light-years in diameter, more than five times larger than the cluster previously believed to be the Milky Way's cosmic home.

1 of 67 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

A body in motion etc. by i+kan+reed · 2014-09-03 06:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

So I get the idea of the new grouping. Some things we used to consider our neighbors, we're actually just flying past and have no long term connection to.
I get why that's useful. But I don't get why it'd replace our existing grouping. For a human lifespan, that grouping is all but permanent.