dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (11/17/84)
Our galaxy belongs to a cluster of galaxies. More on the Local Group -- right after this. November 17 The Local Group Things in space tend to come in clusters. For example, our solar system is just a star with planets, asteroids, and comets clustered around it. And our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a gigantic cluster of hundreds of billions of stars. Throughout the universe, there are billions of other galaxies. Galaxies are like separate cities in the universe -- complete with city lights, the stars. And even galaxies come in clusters. The Milky Way belongs to a collection of galaxies that we call the Local Group. In the November evening sky, a person with a telescope can look into the middle of our Local Group of galaxies. Andromeda is visible in the evening in November -- our sister galaxy thought to resemble the Milky Way in size and shape. Andromeda and the Milky Way are the two largest members of the Local Group. Like the Milky Way, Andromeda has satellite galaxies -- and they also can be seen in November. We can see Andromeda's neighbor in the constellation Triangulum, a galaxy which we call M33. There are also small galaxies in the autumn constellations Sculptor and Fornax. And, if we lived far enough south on the planet, we could see the Milky Way's satellites, the two Magellanic clouds. Apparently, the Local Group lies mainly to this one side of us. But, as you might have guessed -- clusters of galaxies group together into superclusters. The rest of our supercluster lies mainly to the other side of us and will be visible in the evening sky in May. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin