The Distance Between Galaxies Is Far Worse Than You Think

#space #astronomy #universe A slow, calm journey outward from the faint smudge of the Andromeda galaxy to the edge of the observable universe, exploring just how far apart the galaxies really are and what the expansion of space is quietly doing to those distances. We travel from our own Milky Way through the Local Group, the Virgo Cluster, and the Laniakea Supercluster, along the filaments of the cosmic web and past its great empty voids, out to the deep fields and the horizon beyond which galaxies are slipping forever out of reach. Sources: a. NASA and the European Space Agency, public materials on the Andromeda galaxy, the Hubble and James Webb deep fields, and the expansion of the universe b. European Space Agency, Gaia mission mapping of stellar distances in the Milky Way c. Published work on the Laniakea Supercluster and the flows of nearby galaxies d. Event Horizon Telescope, the first direct image of the black hole in Messier eighty-seven e. Historical accounts of Henrietta Leavitt, Edwin Hubble, Vesto Slipher, and the nineteen ninety-eight discovery of cosmic acceleration #space #astronomy #universe #galaxies #cosmology #andromeda #darkenergy #cosmicweb #hubble #jameswebb