The Laniakea Supercluster of Galaxies

Dr. Brent Tully, Institute for Astronomy, UH Manoa

While galaxies are predominantly flying apart from each other with the expansion of the Universe, they are also feeling the gravitational effects of each other. Measurements of these perturbations provide information on the distribution of matter. We have been able to map the boundaries of the supercluster of 100,000 galaxies that we live in: a structure that we named Laniakea. It is some 500 million light years across, making it one of the largest known features in our Universe.

Brent Tully, originally from Vancouver Canada, has been on the astronomy faculty at the University of Hawaii for 44 years. His passion has been to understand the nature of the filamentary and void structure of the Universe and its age.