The great attractor.
In: Physics
Let’s zoom out, the Earth and our Planets orbit the Sun. The Sun and the other stars in our Galaxy orbit what is likely a black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The Milky Way Galaxy then fits into a cluster of other Galaxies called the Virgo Cluster. The Virgo Cluster of galaxies fits in with other clusters called the Virgo Supercluster. The Virgo Supercluster fits with other Superclusters into what we call the Local Group. The Local Group is a part of the Laniakea supercluster.
So you can at least imagine that Laniakea is large beyond any comprehension.
Just like Earth orbits the sun, it’s believed that Laniakea has some sort of super-massive gravitational center that it’s constituent superclusters are attracted to. Astromers can’t actually *see* what this attractor is but they can infer it’s presence by how it tugs and pulls around Laniakea. The reason why astronomer’s can’t see the Great Attractor directly is because it’s located directly through the center on the far side of the Milky Way.
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