Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 12/8/2006

Question
Hello. i am doing a project for science class and the question i have
to ask you is, "where is our galaxy located within the universe"

Answer
Hello Max,
The tru answer to that would be nowhere!
[meaning, no absolute location can be known, as the universe is centerless - hence no co-orfinates like the galactic co-ordinates, can be made - & is too vast for us to be know it fully].

However, our "relative" position with respect to other significant objects near us, is well documented and known.

We belong to the "local group" of galaxies comprising of
1 - M31 (Andromeda nebula with its two satellite galaxies.
2 - Milky way with its two satellite galaxies, the large and small magellanic cloud.
3 - the triangulum galaxy M33
etc

This local group covers a sphere of 10 million lightyears.
ref:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Group#Component_galaxies
for a tabular info you can print for your class!

Out of this group. m31 Andromeda shows a blue shift corresponding to 300 met/sec approach speed. The collision of m31 and milky way will merge to form an elliptical in about 3 billion years.
ref:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy

The whole local group is itself racing towards the virgo super cluster of galaxies easily visible through powerful binocs as a collection of bright "specks". Each speck is actually a galaxy!

By tracking its gravitational effect on the movement of galaxies, one can estimate that the total mass of the Virgo Supercluster is about 10^15 solar masses (2 × 1046 kg; see Orders of magnitude (mass)). As its luminosity is far too small for this number of stars, it is thought that a large part of its mass is dark matter.

The entire Virgo Supercluster is being pulled toward a gravitational anomaly known as the Great Attractor, which lies near the Norma cluster.
ref:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgo_Supercluster

I remember first seeing it with a binoc 10 * 7 in india.
Only later did i trace and find out it was the virgo super cluster.

That is all one can say about the milky way and its "location"!

Hope that suffices.
Pls do rate the answer,
Jayen