Virgo Supercluster

The Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) or Local Supercluster (LSC or LS), also known as the Virgo Extension, is a supercluster of galaxies containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group. The latter contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, among others. The Virgo Supercluster is roughly centered on the Virgo Cluster, with the Local Group located near one edge.

At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within the supercluster diameter of 45 megaparsecs (147 million light-years; 1.39×10 kilometres). The Virgo Supercluster is one of about 10 million superclusters in the observable universe, with the main body of the supercluster, the Virgo Strand, connecting the Hydra-Centaurus and the Perseus–Pisces Superclusters. It is part of the Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, a very largegalaxy filament.

A 2014 study indicated that the Virgo Supercluster is only a part of an even greater supercluster centered on the Great Attractor, the Laniakea Supercluster. This thus would subsume the former as a component under Laniakea as the newly defined local supercluster based on the definition for a supercluster as basins of attraction rather than large high-density regions as traditionally accepted. Basins of attraction such as Laniakea were later proposed to be called to distinguish them from smaller and traditional superclusters, such as Virgo, as high-density regions of the cosmic web.