The Local Group of Galaxies
This is an attempt to visualize the appearance of the
Local Group of galaxies. The galaxies are shown in
supergalactic cartesian
coordinate system (the axis are SGX, SGY, and SGZ). Units are in
kiloparsecs, which means the whole
depicted box is 1.0 by 1.0 megaparsecs in area and 0.7 megaparsecs high.
The supergalactic plane is
shown as a grey plane across the drawing.
Location of each galaxy is depicted in two ways: if a galaxy is
above the supergalactic plane, then it has a bluish line under it
showing how high it is from the plane and if the galaxy is below the
supergalactic plane, it has a greenish line above it showing how
far below the plane the galaxy is. Each galaxy is also projected to
SGX-SGZ plane and SGY-SGZ plane. The projection is shown with a blue
dot on the plane. Positions of Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy on the
supergalactic plane are also shown with a white circle around the projection
point. Each galaxy also has a grey line connecting it to the projection dots.
Unfortunately the density of the lines is so high in certain areas that it
is difficult to distinguish them from each other. The size of the galaxies
is supposed to assist the 3D impression. The larger the galaxy appears on
the image, the closer it is to the viewer. Actual sizes of galaxies are so
small that most of the galaxies would not be visible at all in this image.
Colours of galaxies indicate their classification: yellow is for spiral
galaxies, red for spheroidal and elliptical galaxies, and cyan (light blue)
for irregular galaxies. And VIII is without classification and is shown
brown. A couple of galaxies have uncertain classification, indicated by
colours for both suggested classes.
