So planets orbit stars. Stars orbit the galaxy. The galaxy forms super clusters with other galaxies moving through space.
What do galaxies orbit and when they form super clusters, what do they orbit/what determines direction/speed/etc of their movement?
From my understanding Andromeda and the milky way will one day collide in a billion years. So we’re obviously pulling each other together. Whats then pulling us along?
In: Physics
At those scales you have to talk about average movement. A galaxy orbits around a central area, and that center of gravity moves through space. So you can think of the whole galaxy as a collection of mass that, as a whole has a gravitational pull outside of the galaxy on average. As galaxies in the same local cluster are relatively close to each other, they have a gravitational impact on each other. They all orbit a common center of gravity essentially, but as they do, they may collide and reform. Galaxy rich areas are on average gravitationally pulling each other together, even though they’re not single objects, they’re compact enough (relatively) that their combined mass is great enough to impart some heavy effects on other objects, even unfathomably distant but still within their cluster.
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