The Great Attractor: An Unseen Gravitational Pull

  1. The Great Attractor is a mysterious region exerting a strong gravitational pull on nearby galaxies.
  2. Our Milky Way, along with thousands of galaxies, is drifting toward it at over 300 miles per second.
  3. It lies about 150–250 million light-years away in the Centaurus constellation.
  4. The region is hidden behind the dense stars and dust of the Milky Way’s “Zone of Avoidance.”
  5. Astronomers think it may be part of the massive Laniakea Supercluster.
  6. Its gravity likely comes from a huge concentration of galaxies, gas, and dark matter.
  7. The Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster sits near the heart of this gravitational anomaly.
  8. Galaxies in the local universe appear to “flow” toward the Great Attractor.
  9. Despite decades of study, its exact nature remains unresolved.
  10. Mapping it helps reveal the large-scale structure of the cosmos.