The Virgo Cluster —“Proof of the Cosmic Thread Connecting Us to the Vast Expanse of the Universe”

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The image above shows unusually large halos for the brightest galaxies as well as unusual faint streams of stars connecting galaxies of the Virgo Cluster that previously appeared unrelated. The cluster is a mixture of some 1300 spiral and elliptical galaxies, with the spirals of the cluster distributed in an oblong filament, approximately 4 times as long as wide, stretching along the line of sight from the Milky Way, while the elliptical galaxies are more centrally concentrated.

Astronomers at The Australian National University discovered proof of a vast filamentof material that connects our Milky Way galaxy to nearby clusters of galaxies, which are similarly interconnected to the rest of the Universe.

“By examining the positions of ancient groupings of stars, called globular clusters, we found that the clusters form a narrow plane around the Milky Way rather than being scattered across the sky,” said Dr. Stephan Keller of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU.

(via dailygalaxy)