One of the most mysterious sciences today is astronomy. In it, like no other, there are so many questions that we cannot answer, but we are trying to find answers. One of these global questions is the question of the emergence and distribution of various forms of matter in our Universe. When since Big Bang did primordial matter begin to form into the stars and galaxies that we can observe today? If we assume that before the compression of matter began, it was more or less scattered, could the Universe then be initial stage fill up with your evolution various types substances? Recent research in this area helps answer these and other questions related to the evolution of matter in our Metagalaxy. And recent observations confirm the presence of superclusters of galaxies—organized structures consisting of many clusters of galaxies. Each such cluster, in turn, may consist of hundreds or even thousands of individual galaxies. The presence of such superclusters for a long time was only an assumption, due to the fact that their confirmation was associated with one big paradox that baffled scientists: in some equally large areas outer space there were no galaxies at all.
Such superclusters of galaxies are so vast that their individual members, moving at arbitrary speeds, cannot stop more than a half diameter of the entire supercluster over billions of years from the moment of their formation. It is obvious that historically formed superclusters in their structure have no analogues with their underlying ones. smaller systems. On scales smaller than such superclusters, the original distribution of matter was, so to speak, changed by evolutionary “mixing.” Astronomers hope that understanding and explaining such enormous structures in our Universe will clarify the processes that gave rise to the development of the structure of all dimensions, from galaxies to stars and planets.
To date, it is impossible to determine who first proposed the idea that clusters of galaxies could be members of many large structures called superclusters of galaxies. Extragalactic astronomy, observations in the X-ray, ultraviolet and infrared regions of the spectrum have discovered, and continue to discover, more and more secrets of our Universe, and it is fair to say that the most important cosmological information was collected by ground-based telescopes in visible and invisible rays.
Even long before the invention of the telescope, observers could see not only stars and planets in the night sky, but also small, hazy clouds of light. After creation large telescopes in the 19th century, some of these nebulae were resolved into individual stars. At first they were considered independent star systems, located far from our own galaxy. For the first time, such nebulae were described in the catalog of John Herschel in 1864. It was called GC (General Catalogue), and later in 1888 in the Dreyer catalog (New General Catalogue.)
Subsequently, astronomers who believed that some nebulae formed solitary systems began to argue that such objects tended to form into clusters. In 1908, the Swedish astronomer S. Charlier put forward the idea of a “hierarchical” structure of clusters. He identified several such clusters, of which the largest were clusters in the constellations Virgo and Coma Berenices. In 1922, the English scientist J. Reynolds found that a group of “nebulae” extended from Ursa Major through Coma Berenices into Virgo, covering a distance of about 40° northern sky. Reynolds also believed that these "nebulae" were part of our own star system. He may have been the first to identify these objects, now called the Local Group of galaxies, of which our galaxy is a part.
By the mid-1920s, Edwin Powell Hubble of Mount Wilson Observatory had demonstrated that many of these "nebulae" were single systems. By 1929, he published, together with M. Humanson, his research on the fact that “the more distant a galaxy is, the more its light shifts to the red side of the spectrum.” Such a red shift, as is known, is a kind of indicator of how quickly the galaxy is moving away from us within the framework of the general expansion of outer space. Today, the redshift is called Hubble's law, which, among other things, is the basis of modern observational cosmology.
The redshift value (z) is calculated by subtracting the remainder of the redshift wavelength of the galactic spectral lines from the observed wavelength and dividing the remaining length. Highest value The redshift found by Humanson (in the late 40s) was 2, and was equal to 60,000 km/s. or 20% the speed of light. Such a galaxy was located at a distance of about 2.6 billion light years from us. But the most distant objects from us are, of course, quasars, whose redshift is >=3.5. They are moving away from us at a speed of about 90% of the speed of light and are located 15 billion light years away. years.
In the 1930s, Hubble and Harlow Shapley (Harvard Observatory) noticed that there were more bright galaxies in the northern sky than in the southern sky. Hubble also photographed a huge number of faint galaxies and was confident that he had found a possible end to the cluster phenomenon, although it was only the beginning great discoveries who were waiting for us ahead. Hubble made another very important and significant contribution to science when he classified various shapes galaxies known at that time. In short, about this classification we can say that Hubble divided all galaxies into two main classes: elliptical and spiral, which, in turn, are divided into several more classes... By 1950, scientists could agree with general characteristic clusters of galaxies. Of the several such clusters known at that time, the largest was the Coma Cluster, which contained more than 1000 individual galaxies. Such clusters mostly consisted of elliptical and SO galaxies. No more than half of all galaxies were located within such clusters; the rest, called “field” objects, were considered isolated stellar systems (mostly spiral) lying outside the clusters. Several astronomers have suggested that the region in Virgo may consist of more than just a cluster, and Charlier's hypothesis of a hierarchical structure of much larger clusters has been challenged by Hubble's studies of distant galaxy counts.
J. Vacouleur of the University of Texas at Austin, who has been studying brighter galaxies in the northern galactic hemisphere since the early 50s, was the first to identify and describe the closest cluster to us. According to his research, it is located in the Virgo cluster at 60 sv. years away and may have up to 50 outlying clusters, called groups, containing individual galaxies scattered among such groups. Our galaxy is located in one of the clusters, which astronomers called the Local Group of Galaxies, and so that it is outside the supercluster.
The second great discovery of the 50-80s. is the growing confidence that the Local Supercluster is not unique phenomenon in the Universe. Between 1950 and 1954 the entire northern sky was viewed with a wide-angle of 1.2 m. telescope named after Schmidt on Mount Palomar. (The well-known Palomar Sky Survey.) Shortly thereafter, J. Abell of the University of California, Los Angeles, cataloged 2,712 large galaxy clusters. Abell noted that many of these clusters appeared to be members of superclusters, consisting on average of 5-6 clusters each. His proposal, however, was based on data from another catalog of clusters compiled on the basis of similar study, conducted by F. Zwicky and his colleagues from the University of California. The Zwicky catalog said that clusters cannot consist of structures higher order. The disagreement can be resolved by considering that the clusters described by Zwicky are slightly larger than similar objects from the Abell catalog and include several centers of galaxy concentration. Around the same time, but based on another sky survey (added by Lick Observatory), J. Neumann, E. Scott and S. Shane of the University of California at Berkeley (reporting the discovery of huge "clouds of galaxies" - their terminology for superclusters), also experimentally assumed that every galaxy in the Universe belongs to a cluster; there cannot be isolated star systems. In the 70s, the most complete of all catalogs, compiled by P. Peebles and his colleagues from Princeton University, which also takes into account the spectra of galaxy clusters, tells us, in addition, that clusters tend to be located close to each other.
The third great discovery in the study of cluster phenomena since the early 50's was the use of redshift. The first step in research of this kind was to measure the redshifts of all galaxies brighter than a certain one. magnitude. By applying Hubble's law to redshift values, the distance of each galaxy can be calculated with reasonable accuracy. This approach has many more advantages in comparison with the analysis of data from catalogs, which provide only two coordinates of the galaxy in space (right ascension and declination.) According to such catalogs, the third quantity, the distance, can be approximately determined only by the brightness of the galaxies. Based on the redshift, the distance is determined quite accurately according to Hubble's law. The disadvantage of this method is that while the positions of thousands of galaxies can be obtained from a single photograph, the spectral redshifts are determined only once. In other words, measuring redshifts is a much longer and more labor-intensive process. These two methods are incompatible. Catalogs provide analysis large number galaxies in large areas of the Universe; redshifts provide three spatial dimensions, but in many smaller areas.
It must be said that in general, studies of red shifts became possible only thanks to the progress of telescope construction. In particular, Hubble and Humanson had access to the largest instruments of their era (the 100-foot reflector at Mount Wilson, and later the 200-foot reflector at Palomar), but the photographic emulsions of that time were little comparable to those of today. Modern spectrographs typically include electronic devices that amplify the image by at least 20 times before it appears on the detector. Digital receivers are also actively used, since they are capable of capturing even individual photons. As a result, today's astronomers can take in as much information in half an hour as Hubble and his contemporaries took a whole night.
Looking back in time, the first redshift study was presented at the 1960 Applications Conference. optical systems in astronomy. Working with one of these new devices (the 120-foot reflector at Lick Observatory), N. Mayal obtained spectra of 40 of the 82 brightest galaxies located 4 degrees from the center of the Coma galaxy cluster. In 1972, R. Rud and T. Pudge from the University of Veslen supplemented and expanded N. Mile's original research. The augmented redshifts were recorded by E. Kintner of the same university, who then analyzed the available samples in collaboration with Rood, Page and I. King of the University of Berkeley. Their results represent the first modern, detailed study of redshifts performed on a single galaxy cluster. They reported that the cluster consists mostly of elliptical systems and SO-type galaxies, moving at speeds of more than 1000 km. per second, and that they may not affect the size of the cluster.
Four years later, W. Tifft from the University of Arizona and one of the authors of this article (Gregory) supplemented the study on the Coma cluster, expanding and deepening it. We found that the cluster itself occupies three degrees from the center, and the number of galaxies forms a hand-like structure, reaching the western tip of the nearby cluster A1367 and possibly connecting with it. (A1367 is number 1367 in the Abell catalog. The cluster itself is Veronica-A1367.) Our data suggests that redshifts provide not only a detailed picture of distant clusters, but also important information about galaxies that may be in the “foreground”. Because "foreground" galaxies appear to be in open "clusters" called groups (or "clouds" if they are even rarer), redshift can reveal "clusters" different sizes: from giant to small. Indeed, rare “foreground” samples can tell us a lot about how ordinary clusters form into very large and complex structures. Our research also draws attention to the paucity of field galaxies.
In the rapid and extensive stream of research, one can very often find almost identical results of observations made, however, by different authors. The same thing happened to Rood and G. Cincarini of the University of Oklahoma, who were studying galaxies west of the Veronica cluster and found that the westward part of the cluster was still visible at a distance of more than 14 degrees from the main cluster. They also suggested that this West Side may connect the Veronica cluster and the A1367 cluster. The authors of the article supplemented the observation of the Veronica cluster with new data on its western branch and confirmed that these two clusters can be connected by a bridge of galaxies, which occupies 276 square degrees and consists of 278 galaxies. (Data compiled from observations by Hans and Mile.)
The Veronica cluster is located near the pole of our galaxy, about 90 degrees from the “blanket” of dust and gas that limits visibility of the central region of the galaxy. In our study, we decided to take the spectra of only those galaxies that are brighter than magnitude 15, millions of times farther than Vega one of brightest stars northern sky. Here, when galaxies are shown in two dimensions, as they are located in the sky, we can see two main concentrations: the Veronica cluster itself in the northeast and the A1367 cluster in the southwest direction (Fig. 1.) In another way, they produce the very strong impression that the map is made up of many distant galaxies, more or less randomly distributed between two centers.
Redshift results can show how nearly identical galaxies are distributed according to the third dimension, that is, distance, revealing quite interesting results. For this purpose, however, it is sufficient to use two positional coordinates: the radial distance (derived from redshifts) and angular distance west-east directions of the sky (Fig. 2.) This figure shows us the uneven distribution of galaxies. There are also several small groups near our galaxy that resemble the top of a kind of wedge. The most impressive is still the “densely populated” region 315 million light years from our galaxy (see Fig. 2.) This concentration is called a supercluster, since it connects not only two rich clusters (in Veronica and A1367), but also several less “populated” clusters, which together form a gigantic intergalactic structure extending over 70 million light years. years. The surprising thing is that, along with superclusters, the figure clearly shows that there are several “voids” - areas completely free of galaxies. After completing the study, we were confident that the voids did exist, but we had doubts about their uniqueness. It is clear that at first we considered them to belong only to this part of the sky.
Since the discovery of the first supercluster, which is different in structure and composition from individual galaxies, it has been necessary to find other superclusters that are not similar to Veronica A1367 in order to learn more about their nature. In 1982, at least three even larger clusters were under the scrutiny of scientists. And all three had their own characteristics. In the late 70s, early 80s, the Hercules cluster region was explored by one of the authors of this paper (Thompson) in collaboration with Cincarini, Rood, Tifft and M. Tarenghi with two-meter telescopes at the Steward Observatory (University of Arizona) and Kitt Peak National Observatory. Once again, studies have shown the presence of a fairly extensive supercluster, occupying a distance of 400-600 million light years. years. Unlike Veronoiki-A1367, the Hercules cluster does not have one or two additional clusters. Despite this, it is similar to the Veronica cluster in the presence of a vast void in the foreground. However, perhaps the most amazing phenomenon system in Hercules is that most of the galaxies inhabiting it are spirals. They are much more common than elliptical ones. This feature alone makes the Hercules cluster quite remarkable.
The third most studied supercluster was the area starry sky with the constellations Perseus and Pisces. Highly elongated, it spans more than 40 degrees, from the well-known Perseus cluster to a small group of galaxies near the elliptical system NGC 383. New observations by the authors in collaboration with Tifft show that the depth of the visible cluster is no more than its width. In particular, we can assume not only that the cluster is shaped like a thread, a filamentary filament, but also that individual member galaxies of the cluster have rather low velocities own movements. We also have an assumption that many galaxies in the Perseus-Pisces cluster have rotation planes either parallel to the cluster axis or perpendicular to it. These observations can tell us a lot about how galaxies and superclusters form. The third redshift survey covers only 2% of the visible sky. Several observatories are trying to obtain more information about the phenomenon of superclusters. For example, D. Einasto, M. Jovir, E. Saar and S. Tago from Estonia, who independently discovered the Perseus cluster, as well as the voids in it and analyzed the most full catalog galactic red clusters. However, this catalog is not detailed enough and needs to be supplemented with new research results.
Similarly, Cincarini and Rood analyzed the distribution of distant galaxies, which was first done by S. Rubin, W. Ford and their colleagues from the department terrestrial magnetism Carnegie Institution in Washington. The Rubin-Ford study covers the entire sky, but has small details in each area. This, in turn, allows Cincarini and Rood to confirm the presence of the three superclusters we described above and adds another, previously unidentified structure in the southern hemisphere: the Hydra Centauri cluster. The work of Cincarini, Rood, Einasto, Jovir, Saar and Tago suggests that superclusters are located far beyond the regions we mentioned in our redshift study. According to their calculations, the clusters in Veronica A1367 and Perseus may occupy an area 10 times larger than what we originally assumed.
These hypotheses received additional support from research conducted by R. Kirchner from the University of Michigan, A. Ohmler, P. Schechter from Kitt Peak and S. Schetchman from the Mount Wilson and Las Campanas Observatories. Their study covers three small areas of the northern galactic hemisphere. In each such region, they found galaxies with redshifts close to those of the galaxies in the Veronica A1367 cluster. They were also confident that they had found a huge void, whose dimensions could be 30 by 1024 cubic meters. years. Of the several small areas in the sky concentrated near the north galactic pole, three appeared to be completely free of galaxies at redshifts of about 12,000-18,000 km/s. In four other regions, where they expected to find about 25 galaxies with redshifts in the same range, they, contrary to expectations, found only one such galaxy. Thus, the void calculated on the basis of the entire study is located at a distance of 570-780 million light. years.
Based of this work, we looked at the three most well-defined superclusters: Veronica-A1367, the cluster in Hercules and Perseus (see Fig. 3.) In this view, our galaxy is in the center. The tendency of galaxies to group into clusters is quite peculiar. The distribution of voids, which we initially considered uncertain, is now beyond any doubt. The universe may have self-organized so that the space between clusters could be filled with smaller groups of galaxies, in addition to the fact that voids are part of the process of formation of clusters and superclusters.
The study of superclusters is not just a matter of optical astronomy; radio and x-ray astronomy also contribute significant contribution. Radio astronomers are able to detect the presence of intergalactic gas, primarily because some radio sources in clusters and superclusters gave away the possibility that the gas was low density, not high temperature. If this gas filled all superclusters in the same way that it fills only some of them, its contribution to the total mass of superclusters would be enormous. X-ray astronomy has detected exceptionally hot gas near distant superclusters. It is not clear, however, whether the emission comes only from the centers of bright clusters or from regions between these centers. J. Burns from the University of New Mexico and one of the authors (Gregory) compared the redshift values of various clusters obtained by Kitt Peak, radio maps of the Very Large Radio Telescope in Socorro and data from the Einstein X-ray Observatory. Other astronomers have applied their methods to their own studies of redshifts. These were determined based on observations of a 21-cm displacement. radio emission line of non-ionized hydrogen in interstellar space. One such study was carried out by R. Fisher and R. Tully of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who mapped the galaxies of the local supercluster. The most sensitive radio telescope for this kind of observations is the 303-meter antenna in Arecibo (Puerto Rico); on which, in fact, observations of all three previously mentioned clusters were carried out. Scientists who worked on this project included S. Cincarini, T. Bania, R. Giovanelli, M. Haynes and one of the authors (Thompson.) These observations are rather ambiguous, since they were carried out not only for one galaxy, but also for various entities within several superclusters. Also, these studies are not advanced enough to draw new conclusions about internal organization clusters, and require future observations.
From redshift studies it has become clear that the actual distribution of galaxies is quite heterogeneous over distances of hundreds of millions of light years. It seems quite probable that this heterogeneity “stretches” for billions of light years and is characteristic of the entire Universe. However, it should be added that the Universe may contain much more matter than it seems. The possible existence of such matter (called latent mass) is now the subject of extensive debate.
If today the Universe is inhomogeneous, then it is obvious that early stages In its development, it was still homogeneous. This obviousness comes from the fact that the soft, background radiation of the Earth, which “entangles” our planet in the microwave radio range, is surprisingly stable. The prevailing view is that the background radiation represents an expanded and cooled remnant of the early, hot Universe. However, in the 80s. some inhomogeneities were found small size, but extending over vast distances in space. Is it possible to imagine such heterogeneities? We hope that individual galaxies and the presence of huge voids will bring some clarity to the question of the formation of galaxies, galaxy clusters and superclusters. There are two leading hypotheses on this matter. A more conventional model suggests that individual galaxies appeared outside of nearby, homogeneous matter. Main difficulty This hypothesis is to explain how the Universe evolved from a stochastic state to a state where galaxies have already begun to form. According to this hypothesis, since galaxies formed, small irregularities in their distribution have slowly expanded under long-term influence gravitational forces. The end result Such expansion gave rise to superclusters, which we can observe today.
The following theoretical explanations for the formation of galaxies were proposed in 1972 by two Russian scientists: Yakov Zeldovich and Rashid Sunyaev. According to the model they proposed, the gas of the young Universe did not immediately compact into stars and galaxies. Instead, large-scale heterogeneities in the overall gas distribution increased in response to gravitational attraction and steel for the most part wrong. Eventually, the gas became dense enough to condense into vast expanses of matter (called "pancakes"), which then formed into galaxies. Thus, according to these assumptions, clusters and superclusters were first just clumps of gas and only then galaxies appeared in them.
But are any of these models supported by the observations we have made of superclusters? For example, the Zeldovich-Sunyaev model required that all galaxies be included in clusters or superclusters, “field” galaxies or simply individual stellar islands should be independent, isolated systems. If this model is correct and galaxies can form anywhere, only later forming into groups or clusters, individual galaxies should be quite common. In general, the only groups of isolated galaxies that we discovered from our redshifts were groups scattered along the boundaries of superclusters. The voids turned out to be truly free of galaxies. We believe that individual galaxies scattered within superclusters were once members of small groups, subsequently destroyed by collisions within dense superclusters. It seems plausible to assume that at one time all galaxies were members of groups or clusters. In general, the studied distribution of galaxies inside superclusters and the presence of huge voids between them are completely consistent with the Zeldovich–Sunyaev model. Proponents of the alternative hypothesis hope to find support in explaining how small heterogeneities could turn into large ones through random processes.
In our description of the Perseus-Pisces filamentary cluster, we suggested the possibility that the rotation axes of some galaxies were consistent not only with the rotation axes of other galaxies, but also possibly with the massive structure of the cluster itself. This idea received support from research conducted by Mark Adams, Stefan Strom and Karen Strom of Kitt Peak, who found similar rotation correspondences in several clusters. If such correspondences are confirmed, proponents of the conventional model of galactic formation will face insurmountable obstacles in explaining their own hypotheses. Random static processes in a conditional model do not lead to understanding rotational movements in large ranges. The Zeldovich-Sunyaev model is ready to explain such correspondences.
What are the prospects for such research in the near future? One of the most promising areas of such research is the continued measurement of microwave, background radiation. Even small inhomogeneities noticed in this radiation indicate the presence of matter in the young Universe. Their parameters are close to those needed to test two models of galactic formation.
Our latest comments relate to summing up all of the above. First: Are superclusters the most highly organized structures in our Universe? Is there anything else besides them? For many of our colleagues, superclusters are structures created by gravity and there are no large formations besides them. In our opinion, superclusters represent the possible current state of galaxies that are isolated from other star systems within the clusters themselves.
Secondly, the universality of clusters. We believe that every richly populated cluster in the Abell catalog is part of a supercluster. We, however, think that necessary condition for the formation of a large cluster precisely in the presence of companion clusters. Finally, we want to leave the reader with a sense of admiration for the majesty of superclusters. The Veronica cluster - A1367, for example, is located more than 300 million light years away. years from our galaxy. Moreover, being at such a huge distance, it occupies at least 20 degrees in our sky, stretching across the constellations Coma Berenices and Leo. Cincarini and Rood say it could be 10 times larger. For astronomers and cosmologists, the structures of our Universe of this size leave a truly huge number of questions and mysteries for future observations and research.
This article was first published in Scientific American by Stefan A. Gregory and Layard A. Thompson and provides a detailed chronology of the study of superclusters of galaxies - the most magnificent formations of our Universe. The authors of this work are scientists directly involved in the problem of superclusters of galaxies, as well as exploring other deep-sky objects, new and supernovae. Gregory is a professor of astronomy, working at the New York State University. University, and Thompson, Ph.D., works at the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a member of the astronomy department.
Clusters and superclusters of galaxies. Local group. Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way Galaxy is part of a family of neighboring galaxies known as Local group and forms with them cluster of galaxies. Our Galaxy is one of the largest in the Local Group. The Andromeda Galaxy, part of the Local Group, is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. The 25 galaxies of the Local Group are scattered over 3 million light years. A cluster of galaxies is held together by gravitational forces. Larger galaxy clusters are the Virgo Cluster (several thousand objects) and the Coma Cluster (about 1000 bright elliptical galaxies and several thousand smaller objects). Our Galaxy and its neighbors in the Local Group are slowly moving towards the Virgo Cluster.
Clusters of galaxies, in turn, are grouped into families. The Local Group of Clusters, known as the Local Supercluster, is a formation that includes both the Local Group and the Virgo Cluster. The center of mass is located in the Virgo Cluster. Another supercluster is located in the constellation Hercules. It is 700 million light years away. Superclusters are separated from each other by giant empty spaces and form a spongy structure in the Universe.
Characteristics of galaxies included in the Local Group
Milky Way Galaxy
Milky Way- this is our Galaxy, consisting of 100 billion stars. Our Galaxy has 4 spiral arms, stars, gas and dust. Within 1000 light years of the galactic center, stars are very densely packed. At the very center of the Galaxy is mysterious source colossal energy. There may be a black hole at the center of the Galaxy. The galaxy is spinning. Its internal parts rotate faster than its external parts. The Galaxy's disk is surrounded by a halo cloud of invisible matter.
9/10 The Milky Way galaxies are invisible. Our neighboring two galaxies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds - are attracted by an invisible halo and are absorbed by the Milky Way Galaxy.
Characteristics of the Milky Way Galaxy
* More distant flat component stars have more long periods appeals; those located closer to the center of the star have shorter periods. central part Galaxies rotate like a solid body.
Subsystems of the Galaxy
Average distance of subsystem objects from the galactic plane, kps; T is the age of the stars included in the subsystem, years; M is the mass of the subsystem (in % of total mass Galaxies); N is the estimated total number of objects.
The galactic core is elliptical in shape, dimensions 4.8? 3.1 kps; number of stars?3·E10 7 .
The central core of the Galaxy is elliptical in shape, dimensions ~ 15? 30 ps; number of stars ~ 3·E10 6.
Nucleolus of the Galaxy - diameter ~ 1 ps; in its center there is a compact object (a black hole with a mass of 108-09 solar masses).
Star clusters (relatively close groups of stars):
scattered - diameter from 1.5 to 15 ps; age from several million to several billion years; the number of stars from several tens to several thousand; belong to the subsystem of the galactic plane;
ball - diameter from 15 to 200 ps; age 8-10 billion years; number of stars 10 5 -10 7 ; belong to the intermediate and extreme spherical subsystems.
The total number of stars in the Galaxy is 1.2-10 11.
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Galaxy clusters
70 million light years:
Running through the center of the Virgo galaxy cluster is a remarkable string of galaxies known as the Markarian chain. The chain shown here begins at the top right with two large but featureless lenticular galaxies, M84 and M86. Below and to the left is a pair of interacting galaxies known as the "Eyes". The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, of which all these galaxies are members, is the closest cluster of galaxies to us. It contains more than 2,000 galaxies, and its gravitational pull has a noticeable effect on the Local Group of galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The center of the Virgo cluster is located about 70 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. At least seven galaxies in the chain are moving in the same direction, while the rest appear to have ended up in this location by chance.
100 million light years:
This trio of galaxies is sometimes called the NGC 5985/Draco group and is located in the northern constellation Draco. From left to right in the photo are the turned flat spiral galaxy NGC 5985, the elliptical galaxy NGC 5982 and, finally, the edge-on spiral NGC 5981 - all of them fell into the same field of view, since the distance between them is slightly more than half the diameter full moon. This group is too small to be a galaxy cluster and has not been cataloged as a compact group. These galaxies are approximately 100 million light years away from Earth. A detailed spectrographic study of the bright core of the remarkable visible flat spiral galaxy NGC 5985 has revealed noticeable emission in certain areas. spectral lines, which allows astronomers to classify this galaxy as a Seyfert galaxy, that is, to classify it as one of the types active galaxies. This deep image also reveals faint and even more distant background galaxies.
250 million light years:
This is one of the largest objects in our sky. Each of these nebulous specks is a galaxy. Together they form the Perseus galaxy cluster, one of the closest galaxy clusters to us. We see it through the faint stars of the Milky Way in the foreground. Almost at the center of the cluster, about 250 million light-years away, is the cluster's main galaxy, NGC 1275. In the picture, this large galaxy can be seen on the left. NGC 1275 is a striking source of X-ray and radio emission. It accumulates matter as the surrounding gas and other galaxies fall away from it. The Perseus galaxy cluster is cataloged as Abel 426. It is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster, which occupies about 15 degrees in the sky and contains more than 1000 galaxies. At the distance of the galaxy NGC 1275, this photo covers ~15 million light years.
300 million light years:
Galaxy NGC 1132 looks uniform - but how did it form? NGC 1132 is an elliptical galaxy with little dust and gas and little star formation at present. Although many elliptical galaxies are found in galaxy clusters, NGC 1132 is a large, isolated galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. To explore the history of this eye-catching ball of billions of stars, NGC 1132 was imaged in visible light using the Hubble Space Telescope and x-rays at the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In this composite photo, the visible light is shown as white and the X-ray emission is shown as white. blue. X-ray radiation shows the unexpected presence of very hot gas, it probably also tracks the distribution dark matter. According to one hypothesis, NGC 1132 was formed as a result of a successive merger of galaxies that were originally part of a small group of galaxies. The distance to NGC 1132 is more than 300 million light years. You can also see many wonderful distant galaxies in the photo.
450 million light years:
This group of galaxies is very distant. It is ~450 million light years away (Abell galaxy cluster S0740). It is dominated by the huge central elliptical galaxy ESO 325-G004. This clear image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows many galaxies of amazingly varied shapes and sizes, with just a few nearby stars that can be easily identified by diffraction rays. The giant elliptical galaxy is more than 100,000 light-years in diameter, contains nearly 100 billion stars, and is comparable in size to our spiral galaxy. The Hubble Telescope allows us to see many structural details even in such distant galaxies, including magnificent spiral arms and dust lanes, star clusters, ring structures and arcs resulting from gravitational lensing.
650 million light years:
The photo shows the galaxies of the Hercules cluster - an archipelago of "islands of the Universe", which is located at a distance of 650 million light years from us. This cluster of galaxies contains spiral galaxies filled with gas, dust and star-forming regions and a relatively small number of elliptical galaxies, which are almost devoid of gas and dust and their associated newly born stars. In this composite image, star-forming galaxies are blue, while elliptical galaxies are yellowish. This cosmic landscape shows many galaxies colliding or merging, while other galaxies appear distorted. This indicates that the galaxies in the cluster interact. Over time, galaxy interactions will influence the composition of the cluster. Astronomers believe that the Hercules cluster of galaxies is very similar to young clusters that are far away and already existed in the early Universe. By studying the types of galaxies and their interactions in the closer Hercules cluster, scientists hope to unravel the evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters.
8000 million light years:
This is an image of a group of faint, very distant galaxies taken by space telescope them. Hubble, is a snapshot of the young Universe. The bluish irregular galaxies in the photo are 8 billion years away and are undergoing galactic collisions and bursts of star formation. Studying these objects - difficult task because they are very weak. Studying these galaxies will help us understand how our Milky Way was formed. 
10,000 million light years:
Can we look back to the very beginning of life in our Universe? We can, because the light that came to us from the very beginning flew across the entire Universe, and the time it took for the light to reach us is equal to the age of the Universe. Therefore, by observing distant objects, we can learn what the Universe looked like at the beginning of its life. Telescopes are, in a sense, "time gates." By observing distant galaxy clusters (inside the light cone), we can see when and how these huge galaxy conglomerates formed. Previously, the most distant galaxy cluster recorded was one with a redshift of 1.5, meaning it is 9 billion light years away. Recently, using X-ray images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other data, scientists discovered the new most distant cluster. The object, which was designated JKCS041, is shown in the photo. The cluster's redshift is 1.9, meaning the cluster is one billion light years further than the previous record holder. Hot gas glowing in X-rays suggests that we are not looking at a random group of galaxies, but a real cluster. In the picture, gas is shown in blue. X-ray image of gas superimposed on optical image, which shows the stars located in the foreground. We now see JKCS041 as the cluster was when the Universe was only a quarter of its current age.
Galaxies are rarely solitary. 90 percent of galaxies are concentrated in clusters, which contain from tens to several thousand members. The average diameter of a galaxy cluster is 5 Mpc, the average number of galaxies in a cluster is 130.
The Local Group of galaxies, whose size is 1.5 Mpc, includes our Galaxy, the Andromeda Nebula M31, the Triangulum Nebula M33, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), irregular galaxies NGC 6822, IC 1613, dwarf galaxies- only about forty galaxies connected by mutual gravity. According to latest research The local group moves at a speed of 635 km/s relative to neighboring clusters.
Clusters of spherical shape, consisting of thousands of galaxies, are called regular. Elliptical galaxies are most often found in them. As a rule, they are strong radio sources. One of the largest clusters, containing 40,000 galaxies, is the cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is located at a distance of 100 Mpc from us. The cluster occupies an area in the sky with a diameter of about 10°, and its dimensions reach ten million light years.
Irregular clusters contain many spiral galaxies, but the total number of galaxies is significantly smaller compared to regular clusters.
One of them is a cluster in the constellation Virgo, located 15 Mpc from the Local Group. The Virgo Cluster is huge: it covers an area of the sky 200 times larger than the area occupied by the Moon. The elliptical galaxy M87 in this cluster alone is comparable in size to our Local Group.
The highest density of galaxies is observed in the central regions of large clusters. Galaxies often collide here. Of course, the distances between stars are enormous, and when two galaxies collide, the stars of one of them pass freely between the stars of the other. However, galaxies attract each other, stars fall out of orbit; in some cases, galaxies merge.
The space between galaxies is filled with gas whose temperature is more than ten million Kelvin. On average, there is only one atom for every cubic decimeter of space, but due to the huge volume of the cluster, the total mass of the gas is comparable to the mass of all the galaxies in the cluster.
In order for such hot gas not to leave the cluster, it must be held by a strong gravitational force. According to scientists' estimates, the total gravitational field All galaxies are not enough for this. It must be assumed that there is a so-called hidden mass. The same conclusion can be reached by considering the stability of the clusters themselves: the speeds of individual galaxies are so high that without the hidden mass they would fly apart in different directions.
Galaxy clusters appear to be the largest stable systems in the Universe. Areas of increased concentration of galaxy clusters alternate with voids hundreds of millions of light years away. The Local Group (along with hundreds of other clusters) is also located in a supercluster whose center of mass is in the constellation Virgo. Another supercluster is located in the constellation Hercules at a distance of about 700 million light years.