The cosmic “supercluster” in which the Milky Way resides has been mapped for the first time, showing that our home galaxy is slowly being dragged towards an area of space called the “Great Attractor”.
The study opens up a new horizon on the Universe by demonstrating that beyond our solar system and galaxy there exists an even larger structure that can be traced out, containing about 100,000 galaxies.
Elmo Tempel, a cosmologist at Tartu observatory in Estonia, said: “The most important aspect, from a human perspective, is the discovery that there exist much bigger systems in our local Universe than previously thought.” Andrew Pontzen, a cosmologist at University College London, said that the findings were “impressive and important”.
The supercluster, which has been named Laniakea,