Dear readers, in my modest article I want to talk about such an astronomical concept as the “Great Attractor” (Great Center of Gravity). Surely those of you who are interested in astronomy are already familiar with this topic, but there are also readers, like me, who encountered this concept for the first time.
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 according to which the Milky Way experiences attraction 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 times the mass of the Sun, called the Great Attractor.
The Local Group is a cluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way. There are more than 54 galaxies with a gravitational center somewhere between the Milky Way and the M31 Andromeda galaxy. Part of the Virgo supercluster. (Wikipedia) 
It was not possible to study the Great Attractor more carefully and in detail due to its location in the “zone of avoidance” - an area beyond the plane of the Milky Way, where gas and dust contained in our galaxy block visible light from objects outside it.
The solution to the problem was the Clusters in Zone of Avoidance (CIZA) study, 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. Galaxy clusters are sources of X-ray radiation, which makes observation easier.
The avoidance zone is currently quite well studied. Galactic gas and dust are well traversed by radio waves and light in the infrared range. The most famous finds beyond the zone of avoidance include the galaxies Maffei 1 and Maffei 2, Dwingeloo 1 and Dwingeloo 2.
According to the results of the study, fewer massive galaxy clusters were discovered in the area of the supposed location of the “Great Attractor” than expected. However, a gravitational anomaly near the center of the Great Attractor cluster Abell 3627 was strong enough to tear apart spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 (photo - Hubble) 
But the most interesting thing is that Astronomers at the University of Hawaii have 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 region of the Shapley Supercluster.
The Shapley Supercluster, discovered in 1930. Harlow Shapley is the most massive galaxy supercluster of the 220 known superclusters in the observable universe. It contains about 10,000 times the mass of the Milky Way and 4 times the mass observed in the Great Attractor region.
A study was also conducted that made it possible to calculate that the contribution to the speed of movement of the local group from the Great Attractor is 44%, the rest is associated with 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 area of the Shapley supercluster. 
Recently, in August 2014. Astronomers have built a three-dimensional visualization of the Laniakea supercluster, which includes the Virgo supercluster containing our native Milky Way. So, the entire Laniakea area can be imagined as a valley surrounded by mountains from which rivers and streams flow down 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 towards some common universal gravitational center. And what will happen when all the matter gathers in the center of this whirlpool, a new Big Bang? In this situation, matter will be redistributed and the whole cycle will repeat again.
The Great Attractor is a huge mass of matter located at a distance of 250 million light years from the Milky Way.
general review
Briefly about the main thing
The Great Attractor is located in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere. It extends from the constellations Pavo and Indian to the constellation Velas. Its mass approximately reaches 5 × 10 * 16 masses of our Sun. At the center of the Attractor is a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Angulus, but it is almost completely hidden by the Milky Way. In the vicinity of the Great Attractor there are many large galaxies, together they influence other superclusters with their gigantic attraction.
Mysterious structure in the Universe
Review of galaxy clusters and superclusters 2MASS. The Great Attractor is indicated at the bottom right.
Observing the Great Attractor is difficult in the optical range. The plane of the Milky Way is responsible for numerous bright stars and dust that make it difficult to observe.
The speed of movement of our Local Group of galaxies is 44% due to the influence of the Great Attractor, and the rest is due to the global attraction of the local Universe. To be precise, the Great Attractor itself is moving in the direction of the Shapley supercluster, which is 4 times its mass!
Laniakea Supercluster and Attractor
Laniakea is a group of superclusters with a size of 150 Mpc. The blue dot in the center is Us.
I advise you to look at the three-dimensional visualization of the Laniakea supercluster, which was presented by astronomers in 2014. The Laniakea Supercluster includes the Virgo Supercluster, which contains our home galaxy, the Milky Way. You can imagine the entire area of this Laniakea supercluster as a valley, which is surrounded by mountains from which streams flow down to the very bottom. The lowest point of this valley is the Great Attractor, which is the heart of Laniakea and its center of gravity.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, our Galaxy was considered a unique object. Today we know that in the part of the Universe accessible to our observation, there are perhaps at least 125 billion galaxies. Each of them contains billions or trillions of stars. Only in the closest “neighborhoods” of the Solar system - within a radius of 1.5 billion light years - about 130 superclusters of galaxies have already been discovered. And all this does not at all resemble some kind of frozen world, a kind of star map glued to the celestial sphere. No, everything here is imbued with motion. By the mid-1980s, it was discovered that groups of galaxies are moving apart together. Our Milky Way, together with a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo, together with a supercluster of galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices, together with other clusters of cosmic matter, is rushing at a speed of 600 kilometers per second towards some unknown yet, but incredibly powerful source of gravity. Already the first calculations showed that the total mass of this object is approximately the same as that of several tens of thousands of large galaxies taken together. A significant part of the region of the Universe visible to us is drawn into this strange “funnel”, where, probably, so much matter has already accumulated that it is impossible to imagine even imagine. Trying to resort to at least some understandable allusion, let's say that the matter in the center of our Galaxy also inevitably slides into a black hole. One of the space cartographers, Alan Dressler, called this mysterious, attracting object the “Great Attractor” (from the English attraction - gravity), “The Great Source of Attraction.” However, it has not yet been possible to see anything in that distance where we are all rushing.
There has been much debate about the nature of this object. It was assumed, for example, that this was a “cosmic string”, an incredibly massive relict object that arose in the early youth of the Universe, a kind of thread-like curvature of space-time. However, further observations showed that the Great Attractor is the largest supercluster of galaxies. However, the mass of all galaxy clusters located here is not enough to explain the observed effect. Obviously, there are some other grandiose structures hiding behind the Milky Way, which are part of the Great Source of Attraction, but astronomers cannot yet detect them. It is likely that a huge amount of dark matter, not yet known to science, is also concentrated there. The distance from the Milky Way to the Great Attractor is approximately 250 million light years. The Great Source of Attraction is located in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere. It stretches from the constellations Pavo and Indian to the constellation Velas. Its mass reaches approximately 5 x 10-16 solar masses. In the middle of it lies a galaxy cluster almost completely covered by the Milky Way in the constellation Triangle - in its vicinity there are many large and ancient galaxies. They collide with each other every now and then, emitting powerful streams of radiation. This giant gravitational anomaly affects other superclusters, such as the Great Wall. This means that galaxy clusters in this part of the Universe are not moving away from each other as quickly as would be the case homogeneous expansion of the Universe. And again, we are inevitably, like galaxies towards the Great Attractor, rushing to the same question that scientists have been trying to answer for decades: “How did giant clusters of galaxies arise?” Such a question inevitably entails other questions: “Why do these clusters look the way they do? And how did our world come into being? Why is it the way we see it?” According to the generally accepted opinion, our world was born about 14 billion years ago in the flames of the Big Bang. The only force that ordered matter was gravity. However, this force is weak, and until it organizes matter, too much time will pass. The larger the structure, the longer it will take to form. The formation of the cosmos could proceed in two ways: “top down” (top down), when the structures we observe now were born in the “primordial broth”, and then grew, or “bottom up” ( bottom up) - according to this scenario, gaseous nebulae condensed into stars, stars were pulled together into galaxies, they formed clusters and, finally, cosmic foam arose. Recently, such processes have been simulated on a computer. In the first case, all the structures that interested us - cosmic “foam”, superclusters and clusters of galaxies, as well as individual galaxies - arose, but it took a very long time, while the oldest galaxies appeared already 13 billion years ago. In the second case, only galaxies and their clusters were formed, but there was no cosmic “foam”, there was no “Great Attractor”.
But there was, of course, no shortage of the most risky hypotheses that explained the attraction of galaxies to each other. Thus, Nobel laureate in physics Hannes Alfven suggested, despite the skepticism of his colleagues, that there is another force in space, still unknown to us. Perhaps giant cosmic structures arise due to plasma currents - electrically charged and high-energy gas flows - and the magnetic fields they create. Perhaps there are other forces in the universe that we do not know anything about yet? Perhaps galaxies are more than just collections of dead matter. Perhaps they, like animals, themselves “flock together”, feeling sympathy for each other. After all, no laws of gravity or magnetism force ants to build a hostel for themselves - an anthill. Benoit Mandelbrot, the man who coined the term “fractal,” compared the structure of the Universe to a cirrus cloud. According to him, the whole world is organized according to the fractal principle. The universe has a “fibrous”, branched structure, resembling the crown of a tree or the bronchi of the lungs. If this is really so - and there is much that speaks in favor of this hypothesis - then this will have the most fatal consequences for our cosmological speculations. After all, they rely mainly on the formulas of the theory of relativity. However, they are valid only for a homogeneous Universe, in which matter is distributed relatively evenly. They do not work for the fractal Universe. To summarize, we repeat: no one knows why these huge structures arose in the Universe and how long it took to form them. One can only note how similar this cosmic pattern is to the “Multiverse” of the Russian cosmologist Andrei Linde - many Universes that do not communicate with each other. After all, it can also be compared to soap foam, dotted with many bubbles: some of them inflate, others deflate - some Universes are born, others die. The Big Bang that created our world may not be a unique event at all. This is not the first and not the last Big Bang that rang out in the Multiverse, but all of it, shaken by countless explosions, gives birth to more and more new Universes, multiplying in this way. If we allowed ourselves to compare the Universe with a living being, then these bubbles arising in the Multiverse, they resemble... eggs: many of them will soon die, and only a few will develop into huge organisms full of life - new Universes. However, such a comparison is more worthy of a science fiction writer. However, let’s not forget that space is full of secrets, and perhaps even our Universe has properties that are difficult for us to imagine.
The Great Attractor, or superattraction
At the beginning of the last decade of the last century, astronomers discovered that galaxies fly apart in outer space not individually, but in huge clusters, like flocks of birds during migration. Thus, the Milky Way, together with galaxies in the constellation Virgo, in company with a supercluster of galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices, and also together with other huge masses of cosmic matter, rushes at a speed of 600 kilometers per second in the direction of some unidentified, but unimaginably powerful source of gravity. Calculations show that the total mass of this object is equal to the mass of approximately ten thousand large galaxies.
American astronomer Alan Dressler, who called the mysterious, everything-absorbing invisible object the Great Attractor
And almost half of the matter of our entire Universe is drawn into this gigantic and at the same time strange “pool”. And over many billions of years, so much matter has probably accumulated in this bottomless universal “well” that no one would even dare to name its approximate amount. Trying to find at least some acceptable comparison, this bottomless “abyss” can be conditionally called a black hole in the center of our Galaxy.
The famous American astronomer Alan Dressler called this mysterious, absorbing everything and everyone invisible object the Great Attractor, or the Great Source of Attraction (English “attraction” means “gravity”). However, it has not yet been possible to see anything in that endless distance where our material world is rushing at great speed.
At first, trying to determine the nature of this object, scientists put forward several hypotheses. So, according to one of them, the Great Attractor is an accumulation of a new, unknown to science, type of matter. Proponents of another hypothesis argued that this is nothing more than a “cosmic string” that arose in the “infancy years” of our Universe.
However, subsequent studies revealed that the Great Attractor is a giant cluster of galaxies. From it to the Milky Way is approximately 300 million light years. The Great Attractor is located in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere. It stretches from the constellations Pavo and Indian to the constellation Velas.
It should be noted that galaxies move not in one, but in many different directions. That is, there is complete chaos in space. And this situation leads to the fact that collisions in space often occur not only of single galaxies, but also of their clusters.
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From the book Anti-Religious Calendar for 1941 author Mikhnevich D. E.Even at the beginning of the 20th century, scientists considered our galaxy to be unique. Today, astronomers suggest that just the part of the universe visible to us contains more than 125 billion (stop and think about this number) galaxies. How many stars are in each? Trillions. The mass of them defies real comprehension - even theoretical physicists hide behind equations. Imagine now that somewhere out there, so far away that we can’t even see it, there is an incredibly huge something. And this something is gradually attracting precisely our part of the Universe. Scientists call this “something” the Great Attractor. And among themselves they call it the most terrible thing in space!
From the introduction, you roughly understood how majestic and vast the Universe is. We can move on to the details: in the vicinity of the Solar system, theoretical physicists have counted approximately 130 superclusters of galaxies. This is all within a radius of 1.5 billion light years. It's all moving. But where?
Where are we going
The Milky Way, in the company of galaxies of the constellation Virgo and the supercluster of galaxies of the constellation Coma Berenices, and also an immense amount of as yet unexplained cosmic matter, flies at a terrible speed of 600 kilometers per second. We are attracted by an incredible, unimaginable source of gravity. What will happen when we all finally get there? It's not clear yet.
Frightening calculations
Once physicists realized that everything was moving, they began to calculate the mass of the final source of gravity. According to the very first estimates, the total mass of this object exceeds that of several tens of thousands of large galaxies.
Funnel of fate
And now the entire part of the Universe visible to us is gradually being drawn into this very funnel. Scientists cannot yet imagine how much matter this cosmic anomaly has already collected. In 1986, physicist Alan Dressler, amazed by his calculations, called it the Great Attractor.
What is this!
Modern development of technology simply does not allow scientists to “see” what exactly is in such a distance. The nature of the object is controversial and constantly debated. Several years ago, a group of MIT physicists suggested that the Great Attractor is a relict curvature of space-time that formed at the dawn of the Universe. We will ask you to stop and think about all of the above again. Just try to imagine a time when the Universe itself did not exist!
Grand Magnet
After years of study, scientists can only say one thing: the Great Attractor is the largest supercluster of galaxies in the Universe. But this incredible mass of galaxies is not enough to explain the attraction! Physicists suggest that beyond the part of space visible to us, there is still some kind of grandiose structure that is part of the Great Attractor. Perhaps there is an incredible amount of dark matter hidden there that is still unknown to us.
Unknown factor
The fog is also added by the fact that recently scientists were able to simulate the process of formation of the Universe on supercomputers. The equations included all the forces known to science, but as a result the model did not show any attractor. In other words, this structure simply cannot exist in nature. And in general, what makes galaxies “flock together”? Perhaps galaxies are not just collections of matter. They might even be intelligent. Maybe.
Multiverse
Scientists are increasingly leaning towards the theory of multiverses. Our universe is just one of these universes that are in no way in contact with each other. This theory could indirectly explain the existence of the Great Attractor: what if our Universe “gave a leak” and now we are all simply sucked into the neighboring Universe by a kind of pressure difference? Of course, all this sounds very strange - but the very existence of the Great Attractor simply cannot be comprehended.