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Groups and clusters of galaxies

Galaxies are not distributed homogeneously in the Universe. Some regions in the Universe have a galaxy density (i.e. the number of galaxies per Mpc$ ^{-3}$) significantly lower than the mean, and some a significantly higher density. The main reason for this is that gravity amplifies small inhomogeneities: if a region is slightly denser than its surroundings (for example a group of galaxies), it will tend to attract more matter than the surrounding regions, and hence become even more massive (turn into a galaxy cluster, say). This is the essence of hierarchical structure formation: small structures merge together to make more massive one.

The galaxies huddle together in groups of a few galaxies - such as the MW and M31 in the Local Group - and some are in clusters with hundreds of galaxies. The groups and clusters themselves are clustered in super clusters (i.e. clusters of clusters). But there are no clusters of super clusters: on sufficiently large scales the Universe is not a fractal but becomes homogeneous.



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next up previous contents
Next: Introduction Up: Stars and Galaxies Previous: Summary
Tom Theuns
平成19年2月7日