how big is a galaxy cluster?

FBHthelizardmage · Post by **FBHthelizardmage** » 2003-05-19 02:46pm

Exactly how big is a galaxy cluster?

As in a cluster of galaxys.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-05-19 02:54pm

Tens to hundreds of MegaParsecs in radius.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-05-19 02:59pm

It depends. Our's (called the Local Group) is about 10 million or so lightyears across and has three big galaxies and a few dozen small ones. The nearest big cluster, the Virgo Cluster, has a few hundred big galaxies and thousands of smaller ones and is maybe thirty million LY across. Then there are Superclusters, which contain millions of galaxies and span hundreds of millions of lightyears, in large sheet and filaments.

Go here: http://anzwers.org/free/universe/

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-05-19 09:10pm

*Ahem
Big.
No, really, really big.
It's so big that the biggest thing you could think of would be nanoscule in comparison.
It's so big that entire definitions have to be rewritten to encompass its bigness.
Though compared to the universe it's not to big.
But that does not negate it's incredible incredible bigness.
The bigness is so incredibly, astrodynamically, um, BIG that it ...
And so on.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-05-19 09:11pm

hitchhikers guide?

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-05-19 09:18pm

allow me to demonstrate the distances between two galaxies:

o << - this o is 5 pixels across, and represents the milky way. each pixel represents 20,000 lightyears

o << - this dot is the andromeda galaxy 2.8 million lightyears away. in the same local group.

o << just incase you wanted a larger scale, this is a galaxy in another group.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-05-19 09:21pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:hitchhikers guide?

Not a direct quote, but yes.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-05-19 09:24pm

hitchhikers guide to the galaxy -- where we're all delusions of a deranged mind.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2003-05-19 09:32pm

Man, XaLEv! I wanted to link that site.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-05-20 01:12am

IIRC, the distance between galaxies in clusters, relative to their size, is much less than the distance between individual stars within galaxies.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2003-05-20 02:31am

Good point. Check out the largest magnitude map on the site, you'll see the universe is PACKED with galaxies.