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The immense heaven,
LANIAKEA
by Gene Cymmer Ramirez
Explore Earth and its relationships with a plethora of planets, stars, and galaxies in its cosmic family, Laniakea, the immense heaven.
Eyes on the Earth is developed by NASA
Diameter: 12,760km
We begin with Earth, our home...
It is the only habitable planet that we know, thereby making it the only place that we can live. While it does indeed look majestic and everlasting, we each have a responsibility to take care of it. As Robert Swan stated, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
Using radiometric dating, lunar rock samples, and meteorite analysis, scientists have estimated the Earth to be over 4.54 billion years old.
The largest living structure on Earth is known as The Great Barrier Reef. It stretches for over 2,300 kilometers and hosts 1,625 species of fish.
The first person to circumnavigate the globe was Juan Sebastian Elcano, after Ferdinand Magellan's death in the Philippines. They completed the journey in 1522.
Get updated on our planet's health using NASA's interactive model of the Earth
Eyes on the Solar System is developed by NASA and JPL-Caltech
We are part of the Solar System, our closest 'ohana.
Including us, there are eight planets in our little space family, starting with Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The outer planets begin with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The Sun's light can essentially reach an infinite distance in space, as there is no theoretical limit to light.
Diameter: 1.58 - 3.16 light years (one light year is 9.461 trillion kilometers)
The Oort Cloud is considered to be the edge of the Solar System. It is a distant spherical shell of icy objects that could be as large as mountains. It is also thought to be the source of long-period comets.
The Heliosphere is a bubble-like shield built of solar wind that protect the Solar System from cosmic rays that could otherwise enter. This helps protects the planets from high-energy radiation. Beyond it is interstellar space.
The Alpha Centauri is the solar system's closest neighbor. It has three stars: Alpha Centauri A and B, which are among the brightest stars you can see at night, and Proxima Centauri, which has a planet that could potentially host life.
Explore our celestial 'ohana using NASA's interactive model of the Solar System
Listen to NASA's sonification of what a black hole sounds like
Our solar system is just one of thousands in the Milky Way
The Milky Way galaxy currently consists of 3,916 discovered solar systems. That means we have more than three thousand families just like ours, and many more to be found!
Diameter: 120,000 light years
At the center of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole that the galaxy orbits around. It is known as Sagittarius A* and is 4.3 million times more massive than the Sun.
Our solar system is located in what's known as the Orion Arm. This is just one of the branches or spurs of the four main arms of our galaxy. It is about 27,000 light years away from Sagittarius A*.
In about 4.5 billion years, the Milky Way will collide with its neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. Together, they will form a new galaxy. Our solar system will survive this but will take a new position in the universe.
The Milky Way is just one in more than fifty galaxies in what we call the "Local Group"!
Diameter: 10,000,000 light years
The Local Group is an 'ohana of galaxies that are bound together because of gravity. There are three major galaxies in the local group: Andromeda, Milky Way, and Triangulum. Many more are still unconfirmed.
Edwin Hubble first proposed "The Local Group" in his 1936 book "The Realm of the Nebulae". In it, he initially identified 12 members, including our galaxy, The Milky Way.
Within The Local Group exists a form of matter that is called 'dark matter'. It does not interact with light, but influences cosmic structures with its gravitational force.
The Local Group contains around 38 confirmed dwarf galaxies. Dwarf galaxies are smaller than galaxies like the Milky Way. They orbit around bigger galaxies and contain more dark matter than visible matter.
Edwin Hubble first proposed "The Local Group" in his 1936 book "The Realm of the Nebulae". In it, he initially identified 12 members, including our galaxy, The Milky Way.
The Local Group is part of a larger family that we call the Virgo Supercluster!
Diameter: 110,000,000 light years
Containing at least 100 galaxy groups, the Virgo Supercluster is a colossal network of around 45,000 galaxies all being pulled by a gravitational force.
The largest and most significant member of the Virgo Supercluster is called the Virgo Cluster, which is located near the center. The Local Group, on the other hand, is located in the outskirts of the supercluster.
The space between galaxies is known as the intergalactic medium. It is made of hot gases that reach up to 1 million Kelvin. They emit X-rays which can be detected by our x-ray telescopes.
In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope famously imaged a supermassive black hole located in the M87 galaxy. It is man's first image of a black hole.
The Virgo Supercluster was thought to be the largest cosmic 'ohana that we belonged to, until in 2014 a team of astronomers in the University of Hawaii discovered...
Laniakea, the immense heaven...
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Diameter: 520,000,000 light years
Can you still see the Milky Way? It is just a tiny dot in this vast map of superclusters. With approximately 100,000 galaxies, this family potentially holds billions of stars.
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The team of astronomers was led by Dr. R. Brent Tully, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They discovered Laniakea by studying the motion of galaxies, instead of their location.
Within the structure of Laniakea is a strange gravitational anomaly called The Great Attractor. It influences all of Laniakea's galaxies by pulling them closer to it. It is still being studied and observed.
"Laniakea" is a Hawaiian word meaning "immense heaven" or "spacious skies". It pays homage to the traditional Hawaiian navigators who used the stars with reverence in their voyages.
Photos by Wix Studio, Naval Museum of Madrid, Spain, Dave Jarvis, NASA, ESAHubble, Pablo Carlos Budassi, Richard Powell, David Dayag, Feiximing1983, Johan Hagemeyer, ESO, L. Calçada, Andrew Z. Colvin, Fernando Pena, Brent Tully, Thomas Jarrett , Jan Bambach
Laniakea itself is part of an even larger cosmic family called the cosmic web. Today, the cosmic web is what's considered to be the largest known structure of organized matter in the observable universe. The observable universe is approximately 93 billion light years, and as the name suggests, that's the part of the universe that we can currently study because of the limitations in our technology. All in all, our cosmic family has an estimated number of 2 trillion galaxies, 200 sextillion stars, and quadrillions of planets.
