Virgo Cluster

cluster of galaxies · the nearest big one · in Virgo and Coma Berenices

54.9 million light-years from Earth

The nearest big cluster of galaxies: thousands of them, about 54 million light-years away, held together by some 600 trillion Suns' worth of mass, most of it dark matter. Its pull draws the Milky Way and its neighbours toward it at about 185 km/s, though the expansion of the universe still carries us away from it.

• about 54 million light-years · its main body about 10 million light-years across
• its 16 Messier galaxies and 1,012 more members, drawn as points

kind

place in the universe at large

size

10 million light-years across