supercluster
1
9.2
- noun
- /ˈsuːpərˌklʌstər/
- Specialized
:
superclúster
- Astronomers have discovered that our supercluster is part of a larger structure in the universe.
- superclusters of galaxies
Examples
-
OK, then the largest objects are these superclusters of galaxies out in space.
-
Superclusters are probably the largest material structures in the universe, which makes whatever distribution they assume in space a central observational fact for cosmology to explain.
Academic text (2005) -
There's a YouTube video of this guy talking about the Virgo supercluster, which our Galaxy is in.
-
We know what matter looks like today because we see galaxies, galaxy clusters, and galaxy superclusters.
Academic text (2003) -
In other words, in those regions, gravity would beat out the expansion of the universe and gather enough matter so that superclusters would eventually be created.
Academic text (2005) -
And the Virgo Supercluster (often called the Local Supercluster), to which the Milky Way belongs, extends some 100 million light-years.
Academic text (2005) -
And recent satellite observations have given cosmologists hard evidence that the quantum fluctuations of matter and energy in that early universe were just the right size to have given rise to the superclusters visible today.
Academic text (2005) -
By the time the universe was half a million years old, matter had begun to coalesce into the blobs that later became galaxy clusters and superclusters; during its next half million years, the universe grew by 50 percent.
Academic text (2003) -
The gravitational pull of the entire supercluster influences the motion of nearby galaxies.
-
The Local supercluster contains thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity.
Synonyms
1
9.7
A very large group of stars and galaxies that forms in space
How Large
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word supercluster comes from super and cluster. Super means 'above' or 'very' and cluster means 'a close group', like 'a cluster of grapes', so in astronomy a supercluster is a very large group of galaxies or galaxy clusters held together by gravity.