Great Attractor facts for kids
The Great Attractor (GA) is a huge area in space. It has a very strong pull, like a giant magnet. This pull affects our own Milky Way galaxy and many other galaxies. It makes them move towards it.
Scientists know about the Great Attractor because of how it affects galaxies. It pulls them across hundreds of millions of light years of space. The Great Attractor has as much stuff in it as tens of thousands of Milky Way galaxies combined!
Even though the Universe is expanding, and galaxies are generally moving away from each other, the Great Attractor still pulls them. Scientists can see this pull by looking at how light from these galaxies changes. This change, called redshift, shows how fast galaxies are moving. The way their redshift varies tells us that the Great Attractor is there, pulling them in.
Where is the Great Attractor?
Scientists finally figured out where the Great Attractor is in 1986. It is about 150 to 250 million light years away from us. This area of space is hard to study. It's in a part of the sky that is hidden by our own Milky Way galaxy. This hidden area is called the Zone of Avoidance.
Because of all the dust and stars in our galaxy, it's tough to see the Great Attractor with regular light. But using X-ray telescopes, scientists have found a huge group of galaxies there. This group is called the Norma Cluster. It has many large, old galaxies. Some of these galaxies are crashing into each other. Many also send out strong radio waves.
In 2005, astronomers did another X-ray study. They looked at a part of the sky called the Clusters in the Zone of Avoidance. This study helped confirm an idea. It showed that our Milky Way galaxy is actually being pulled towards an even bigger group of galaxies. This super-group is called the Shapley Supercluster, and it's located beyond the Great Attractor.
Related Space Objects
Images for kids
-
Hubble Space Telescope image of the region of the sky where the Great Attractor is located
See also
In Spanish: Gran Atractor para niños
