Superclusters

The largest scale on which the mass density has been measured with any precision is that of superclusters. A supercluster is an aggregate of several clusters of galaxies, extending over about 10 Mpc. Our local supercluster is an extended distribution of galaxies centered on the Virgo cluster, some 10-20 Mpc distant, and our Milky Way galaxy together with the Andromeda galaxy forms a small group (the Local Group) that is an outlying member of the Virgo Supercluster. The mass between us and Virgo tends to decelerate the recession of our galaxy, as expected according to Hubble's law by about ten percent. This effect is seen as a deviation from the uniform Hubble expansion of the galaxies and provides a measure of the mean density within the Virgo Supercluster. One again finds a ratio of mass-to-luminosity equal to 300 over this scale, which amounts to about 20Mpc.