Heading for the Great Attractor

Dear readers, in my humble article I want to talk about such an astronomical concept as the “Great Attractor” (The Great Center of Attraction). Surely those of you who are fond of astronomy are already familiar with this topic, but there are also readers, like me, who first came across this concept.

Scientists have long known that our galaxy is moving in the direction of the constellation Centaurus, but the reason for the movement has long remained a mystery. About 30 years ago, a theory was put forward that the Milky Way experiences attraction not only from other objects of the local group, but also from a more distant large cluster of matter with a mass of more than 10 quadrillion more than the mass of the Sun, called the Great Attractor.

Local group- a cluster of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way. It counts more than 54 galaxies with a gravitational center somewhere between the Milky Way and the M31 galaxy - Andromeda. Included in the Virgo supercluster. (Wikipedia) It was



not possible to study the Great Attractor more closely and in detail because of its location in the “avoidance zone” - the area beyond the Milky Way plane, where the gas and dust contained in our galaxy block visible light from objects beyond.

The solution to the problem was the study of clusters in the avoidance zone (CIZA), conducted by scientists at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. To study hard-to-reach regions, X-ray radiation was used, which easily overcomes clouds of gas and dust. Clusters of galaxies are sources of x-ray radiation, which facilitates the task of observation.

The avoidance zone is currently well understood. Galactic gas and dust are well overcome by radio waves and light in the infrared. The most famous finds beyond the avoidance zone include the galaxies Maffei 1 and Maffei 2, Dwingeloo 1 and Dwingeloo 2.

According to the results of the study, in the area of ​​the proposed location of the "Great Attractor", less massive galactic clusters were detected than expected. Nevertheless, the gravitational anomaly near the center of the Great Attractor, Abell 3627 cluster, was strong enough to tear apart the spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 (photo - Hubble)


But the most interesting thing is that the University of Hawaii astronomers discovered an even more massive cluster of galaxies at a distance more than 500 million light-years (5 sextillion km.) from the Milky Way, far beyond the Great Attractor, in the area of ​​the Shapley supercluster.

The Shapley Supercluster, discovered in 1930. Harlow Shapley, is the most massive galaxy supercluster of 220 known superclusters in the observable universe. It contains a mass approximately 10,000 times greater than the mass of the Milky Way and 4 times greater than the mass observed in the Great Attractor region.

A study was also conducted that allowed us to calculate that the contribution to the speed of the local group from the side of the Great Attractor is 44%, the rest is connected with the global current, where a significant part of the local universe, including the Great Attractor itself, is moving in the direction of an even stronger center attraction in the Shapley supercluster.


Recently, in August 2014. astronomers have built a three-dimensional visualization of the Laniakea supercluster, which also includes the Virgo supercluster containing our own Milky Way. So, the whole area of ​​Laniakea can be represented as a valley surrounded by mountains from which rivers and streams flow to the lowest point of the valley.
The "Low Point" is the new "Great Attractor" and is the heart of Laniakea.


As a conclusion, I dare to suggest that in the universe there is a global flow of matter to a certain general universal gravitational center. And what happens when all the matter gathers in the center of this whirlpool, a new Big Bang? In this situation, matter is redistributed and the whole cycle will be repeated again.

Sources:
University of Hawaii Cornell University
Library
RIA on the torn galaxy
Wiki