What is the Virgo Supercluster?
The Virgo Supercluster is a large-scale multigalactic structure about 200 million light years in diameter. By comparison, the Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light years across, two thousand times smaller. The Milky Way, and by extension our own solar system and Earth, are a part of the Local Group of galaxies, which in turn is a part of the Virgo Supercluster . The Virgo Supercluster has a diameter about 0.2% the size of the entire visible universe. It is one of an estimated 10 million superclusters. The Virgo Supercluster contains approximately 200 galaxy groups, 2,500 large galaxies, 50,000 dwarf galaxies, and 200 trillion stars. It is named after the Virgo cluster, the largest nearby galactic structure, which is the dominant gravitational force in the Virgo Supercluster (hence its name). Other large clusters within the supercluster include the Fornax cluster and the Eridanus cluster. Our own Local Group is relatively small in comparison to these larger clusters. Sometimes the Vir
