Superclusters – regions of space that are densely packed with galaxies – are the biggest structures in the Universe

Astronomers have mapped the cosmic watershed in which our Milky Way Galaxy is a droplet. The massive structure, which the research team dubs the Laniakea Supercluster, extends more than 500 million light-years and contains 100,000 large galaxies. Wow that is incomprehensible gargantuan.

Superclusters form large structures of galaxies, called „filaments”, „supercluster complexes”, „walls” or „sheets”, that may span between several hundred million light-years to 10 billion light-years, covering more than 5% of the observable universe. Observations of superclusters likely tell us something about the initial condition of the universe when these superclusters were created. The directions of the rotational axes of galaxies within superclusters may also give us insight into the formation process of galaxies early in the history of the Universe.[2]

Interspersed among superclusters are large voids of space in which few galaxies exist. Superclusters are frequently subdivided into groups of clusters called galaxy clouds.

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