View towards 'The Great Attractor' in Our Local Universe | ESO

View towards 'The Great Attractor' in Our Local Universe | ESO

The Great Attractor is a region of heightened gravitational attraction in the local universe. It lies in the general direction of the Norma Cluster and the Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster, approximately 150–250 million light-years from the Milky Way. Its presence was inferred from the peculiar motions of galaxies that deviate from the motion expected solely from the expansion of the universe. The Great Attractor lies in the direction of the constellations Norma and Triangulum Australe.

The term does not refer to a single galaxy, galaxy cluster, or compact astronomical object. Instead, it describes a broad concentration of matter and an associated minimum in the local gravitational-potential and velocity fields. 

This image covers a field of 0.5° x 0.5° in the Southern constellation of Norma (The Level) and in the direction of the "Great Attractor". This region is at an angular distance of about 7° from the main plane of the Milky Way, i.e. less than 15 times the width of the image shown. In this color composite, the foreground stars in the Milky Way mostly appear as whitish spots (the "crosses" around brighter stars are caused by reflections in the telescope optics). Many background galaxies are also seen. They form a huge cluster (ACO 3627) with a number of bright galaxies near the center — they stand out by their larger size and yellowish color. North is up and East is left.

Five exposures each were made in blue (B-band filter; 5 x 300 sec), red (R-band filter; 5 x 180 sec) and near-infrared (narrow-band filter centered at 816 nm; 5 x 240 sec) light and combined into a false-color composite by using blue, green, and red color for the three images, respectively. A logarithmic intensity scale is used to better show the inner as well as the outer regions of the galaxies in this field.

Learn more about the European Southern Observatory's MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope:
https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/mpg22/

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: Dec. 21, 1999

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