Nearby Groups of Galaxies
This is an attempt to visualize the appearance of
the nearby groups of galaxies. The groups are shown in
supergalactic cartesian
coordinate system. The horizontal axis is SGX and vertical axis SGY,
which means the image shows the
supergalactic plane. Units are in millions of
light years.
The third dimension is depicted by the colour of the groups.
The lighter in colour the group is the further away it is.
Therefore the darkest circles are the ones closest to the viewer.
True sizes of galaxies are so small that most galaxies would be too small to
show at all in this image.
The size of the groups depicts how many galaxies there are in
the group. The larger the circle is the more galaxies it contains.
Sizes do not grow linearly with the number of galaxies. All groups
with more than 10 galaxies are named on the image.
The image shows also two rings centred on the origin of the
supergalactic coordinate system (i.e. the solar system). The rings indicate
various distances from the origin.