Course on the Great Attractor

Dear readers, in my humble article I want to talk about such an astronomical concept as the “Great Attractor” (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 have come across this concept for the first time.

Scientists have long known that our galaxy is moving in the direction of the constellation Centaurus, but the cause of the movement has long remained a mystery. About 30 years ago, a theory was advanced that the Milky Way is under pressure not only from other objects of the local group, but also from a more distant large accumulation 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. There are more than 54 galaxies with a gravitational center somewhere between the Milky Way and the M31 galaxy - Andromeda. Included in the Virgo supercluster. (Wikipedia)


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It was not possible to study the Grand Attractor more closely and in detail because it was located in the “avoidance zone” - the area behind the “Milky Way” plane, where gas and dust contained in our galaxy block visible light from objects outside of it.

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. In order 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 makes it easier to observe.

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

According to the study, in the area of ​​the proposed location of the “Great Attractor”, less massive galactic clusters were discovered than expected. Nevertheless, the gravitational anomaly near the center of the Great Attractor, the Abell 3627 cluster, proved to be sufficiently strong to break apart the spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 (photo - Hubble)


But the most interesting thing is that the Astronomers of the University of Hawaii discovered an even more massive cluster of galaxies at a distance of 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 supercluster of galaxies out of 220 known superclusters in the observable universe. It contains a mass of about 10,000 times greater than the mass of the Milky Way and 4 times greater than the mass observed in the “Great Attractor” area.

A study was also conducted which allowed the calculation of the contribution to the speed of movement of the local group from the side of the Great Attractor to 44%, the rest is related to the global flow, where a significant part of the local universe, including the Great Attractor itself, moves towards an even stronger center. attraction in the region of the super cluster Shapley.


Recently, in August 2014 astronomers have built a three-dimensional visualization of the supercluster of Laniakea, which 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 down to the lowest point of the valley.
The “lower 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 course of matter towards a certain universal universal gravitational center. And what happens when all the matter comes together in the center of this whirlpool, the new Big Bang? In this situation, the matter will be redistributed and the whole cycle will be repeated again.

Sources:
University of Hawaii
Cornell University Library
RIA about a torn galaxy
Wiki