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Welcome To Laniakea, Our New Cosmic Home

Posted by samzenpus on 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.

9 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. A body in motion etc. by i+kan+reed · · 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.

    1. Re:A body in motion etc. by kruach+aum · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It replaces the new grouping in much the same way Einstein replaced Newtonian mechanics. It is a more accurate description of our place in the universe, just as relativity is a more accurate description of moving bodies, even if on human scales the two are nearly indistinguishable.

    2. Re:A body in motion etc. by Artifakt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Analogies are never exact correspondences. They're simply more or less useful. People who replace 'useful' with 'accurate' in that sentence are like a clown car full of lawyers in a fruit flavored hailstorm.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  2. 'Musican by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If it is that fat it must be an American super cluster.

  3. There goes the neighborhood. by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Universe was such a nice place before all this suburban sprawl took over. Stupid commuters.

  4. Just 520M LY? by rsborg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hell, that's less than 160 MegaParsecs. Not that much bigger than the already-cramped Virgo Supercluster at 33MPa. Still the name is quite nice.

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  5. LOL ... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually, Laniakea's girth is measurable, though difficult to conceptualize

    Your momma so fat ...

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Misplaced? by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can't click-open the article. Imagine if we slashdotted an entire Beowulf cluster of galaxies.

    Seriously, though, how could we have missed that many nearby galaxies for so long? Did we not see them, underestimate their size, miscalculate their location or direction due to dust being in the way?

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  7. Re:Not surprising by boristhespider · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're not the only one to start thinking along these lines. You might be interested in this somewhat random and unrepresentative set of papers:

    http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/...
    http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.4280
    http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.0552
    http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4688
    http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.5554

    I know very little about this area myself but it seems relatively settled that the fractal dimension of the universe - if such can be defined and has a meaningful interpretation - is between 2.5 and 3.