A Stunning New Map Reveals For The First Time Where Our Galaxy Fits Into The Universe

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

It's just so beautiful.

I love our universe.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

Given the fact that we live in a mediocre solar system should tell everyone that life happening is pretty darn easy.
And as a side note: There is NO SUCH thing as breaking the laws of physics.

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

Stunning...

Its like we are nothing more than a neuron in the brain of something else.

originally posted by: caseman1967
a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

Given the fact that we live in a mediocre solar system should tell everyone that life happening is pretty darn easy.
And as a side note: There is NO SUCH thing as breaking the laws of physics.

I dunno... Some people go out of their ways to break the law. I say leave the term... It will give those scientists who dont like laws even more inspiration to find ways to break them.

pretty awesome.

but we have other things to think about.

and including that stuff it really makes ya think.

a reply to: Xcathdra

I would say more of a parasite on the neuron in the brain of something.

I think the Great Attractor could be a massive concentration of dark matter. Super-massive black holes at the centres of galaxies don't really play gravitational role at such scales, as the mass of their host galaxies themselves is much grater (in fact, stars in such galaxies orbit the common centre of mass of the whole galaxy, rather than orbiting the black hole directly).

Or maybe there's a gigantic wormhole that sucks those galaxies and spews them out in some other universe.

P.S. Science paper: arxiv.org...

Galaxies congregate in clusters and along filaments, and are missing from large regions referred to as voids. These structures are seen in maps derived from spectroscopic surveys that reveal networks of structure that are interconnected with no clear boundaries. Extended regions with a high concentration of galaxies are called 'superclusters', although this term is not precise. There is, however, another way to analyse the structure. If the distance to each galaxy from Earth is directly measured, then the peculiar velocity can be derived from the subtraction of the mean cosmic expansion, the product of distance times the Hubble constant, from observed velocity. The peculiar velocity is the line-of-sight departure from the cosmic expansion and arises from gravitational perturbations; a map of peculiar velocities can be translated into a map of the distribution of matter. Here we report a map of structure made using a catalogue of peculiar velocities. We find locations where peculiar velocity flows diverge, as water does at watershed divides, and we trace the surface of divergent points that surrounds us. Within the volume enclosed by this surface, the motions of galaxies are inward after removal of the mean cosmic expansion and long range flows. We define a supercluster to be the volume within such a surface, and so we are defining the extent of our home supercluster, which we call Laniakea. A key component of this paper is an accompanying movie that can be viewed (also in 3D) and downloaded at this http URL or this http URL

3D video for use with red-cyan glasses: www.youtube.com...

It's awesome when viewed full-screen and in HD

VERY cool.

All together now...



We are here. We are here. We are here.

I too think it is beautiful! I love this type of knowledge that puts dents in the great mystery of it all!

a reply to: caseman1967

We know so little about existence that in a million years however we have evolved, we'll look back at our current laws of physics and consider them to be like fads.

I think the universe resembles anatomical features because it's truly creation from imagination. The greatest simulation except the processor is so powerful it's become unimaginably vast.

a reply to: wildespace

Excellent addition to the thread! Thank you for that.

So Awsome!! The Great Attractor? How cool is that! I want to know what it is. Maybe a wormhole to another dimension.

I wonder, if you zoomed out farther, if these super clusters would make a similar pattern attracted to a Bigger Attractor?

That would be cool!

a reply to: captainmjp

I am willing to bet so, it seems the universe is full of patterns like that from clusters to the atom.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

The all is mind, the Universe is mental

Very nice.

However, the correct translation of laniakea is wide, or open sky (or heaven). A fitting word, however a Hawaiian translation of "immeasurable heaven" would be more like lani ana `ole. Nice too. But harder for haole to pronounce.

re: Pukui, Elbert

Mind is beyond blown. How cool. We truly are residing in some sort of super brain or nueral structure. Or some super massive something.

Maybe our lifeforce is something akin to an electron. Our mentality and the way we live our life determines our polarity and where we recycle to.

If we're so small why do we feel so significant? So weird.....like I said above, this is beyond a mind blower.

@poster who said maybe we are residing in the heart chakra due to laniakea looking like an organic heart, that was an awesome thought!

@poster who said we are more like a parasite on the neuron, maybe that all depends on how we live our lives?

Thanks so very much OP cor reminding me how insignificant I am. All of my problems don't seem so VAST anymore.

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

Whats even more mind altering is the image is composed of some 8 thousand galaxies.

The estimate of the number of galaxies in the universe is 100 to 200 billion.

Every time I see something like this, it takes me about 5 minutes to get back to what I was doing. I stop and think about the unimaginable distances and the wonders that could be out there waiting for us....if we would only try. Take those billions we spend on weapons and better, faster way to kill each other and put it toward getting off this little rock.

The diagram reminded me of one of the state of matter. Plasma.
However... it also made me think "Oh we're in what look to be the lungs of God and we're that tiny cancerous dot on the CT scan" ;-p