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Galaxy cluster – the heart of our supercluster

Virgo Cluster

A cluster of more than 1,300 galaxies, the heart of our supercluster. Its gravity also pulls on the Local Group.

▶ View in the 3D model

Key figures

Distance

about 54 million light-years

Galaxies

over 1,300, perhaps 2,000

Mass

about 1 quadrillion Suns

Constellation

Virgo

Largest galaxy

M87 – with a black hole of 6.5 billion Suns

Interesting facts

• In 2019 the very first image of a black hole was published – it sits in M87, the giant galaxy at the centre of the Virgo Cluster.
• The cluster's gravity pulls on the Local Group too. We are, so to speak, a suburb on the edge of this “galaxy metropolis”.
• With a small telescope you can see dozens of Virgo galaxies in spring as faint little misty patches.

Galaxy clusters

In a cluster, hundreds to thousands of galaxies move around one another, held by their shared gravity – and above all by dark matter. In between lies extremely hot gas that glows in X-rays.

Where is it?

Virgo Cluster belongs to the “The cosmic web” level of the Cosmic Zoom (field of view about 600 million light-years). Galaxies are spread out like dewdrops on a gigantic spider's web: in clusters and long filaments, with vast voids in between. Here the whole Local Group is a single point of light.

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