Local Group Races at 2.3 Million km/h as Great Attractor and Void Tug Opposite Ways
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jun 21
Local Group Races at 2.3 Million km/h as Great Attractor and Void Tug Opposite Ways
2 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jun 21
Summary
631 kilometers per second—about 2.3 million km/h—is the Local Group’s measured speed relative to the cosmic microwave background, showing the Milky Way and nearby galaxies are moving rapidly through space.
That motion is inferred from the background’s temperature dipole: it appears slightly hotter in the direction of travel and cooler behind, a Doppler pattern caused by our movement.
The main drivers are a gravitational pull toward the Great Attractor and the larger Shapley Concentration, dense regions hundreds of millions of light-years away.
A 2017 galaxy-flow study added the opposite force: the Dipole Repeller, a vast underdense region whose weak gravity effectively pushes the Local Group away; researchers said that push and the pull ahead matter roughly equally.
The broad picture is well supported, but details remain uncertain because the Great Attractor sits partly behind the Milky Way’s dust and the repeller is inferred from galaxy-motion models rather than directly imaged.
Our galaxy is being pushed and pulled across the universe, but could this motion point to a fundamental error in cosmology?
New data confirms our galaxy's cosmic speed, so why does it also reveal a major flaw in our model of the universe?
The Local Group’s 2 Million km/h Journey: Mapping the Gravitational Forces Shaping Our Galactic Future
Overview
The Local Group, including our Milky Way, is moving rapidly through space toward the Great Attractor, pulled by its immense gravity. This motion is not just a simple journey; it is shaped by a cosmic tug-of-war between powerful gravitational attractors like the Great Attractor and vast, empty regions called voids. One such void, the Dipole Repeller, acts as a counterforce, effectively pushing galaxies away and influencing the Local Group’s path. This dynamic interplay of pulls and pushes reveals the complex forces at work in our local universe and helps explain the Local Group’s ongoing cosmic journey.