Our Place in the Universe

 

We all know that space is really, really big, and we are really small. But just how much is out there? The huge scale of the universe is impossible for the human mind to comprehend. There is no single picture we can look at to grasp it. But pictures can help us get an idea. In early September a team led by Brent Tully at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu updated our understanding of our place in this vast array of stars with the discovery of Laniakea, the supercluster of galaxies that is our home. How do we fit into Laniakea, and how does Laniakea fit into the universe?