The density of our Local Group (left) compared to the Virgo galaxy cluster (right). The view spans about 2 Mpc (6 million light years) in each case; the size of the galaxies has been exaggerated by a factor of 20. Smaller galaxies in the Local Group (which are just too small to show up unless I make everything ridiculously large) are shown as faint transparent fuzzy patches. You can see Andromeda fly past if you watch closely, but Triangulum is still too small.
Nice! What did you use for the 3D model?
ReplyDeleteThanks ! I used Blender to make the model. The Virgo cluster I made years ago (http://www.rhysy.net/visualising-virgo.html). The Local Group was done with a quick Python script using data from McConnachie 2012 (http://www.astro.uvic.ca/~alan/Nearby_Dwarf_Database.html).
ReplyDeleteOutstanding! Thanks. I made a VRML model from the 2MASS redshift survey and then backfilled the Local Group with about 55 entrants found on some Wikipedia page, but that's not necessarily trustworthy, so McConnachie's data will be a very welcome check.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for sharing your Blender model of Virgo! I've never used it, but now I have motivation to try it out. (Well, one of these days...never enough time, sigh.)
Mindblowing, thank You for sharing!
ReplyDeletePsht, we're on a remote arm of a backwater galaxy. No wonder none of the really cool aliens want to talk to us: we're rubes.
ReplyDeleteThe density of our Local Not Bad
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