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Concept

Laniakea

The galaxy supercluster that is home to the Milky Way and 100,000 other nearby galaxies. Spanning 500 million light-years, its name means 'immense heaven' in Hawaiian. It is defined by the paths that galaxies take as they move: all galaxies within Laniakea flow inward toward the gravitational basin of the Great Attractor. It was first mapped in 2014 using data from peculiar velocity surveys.

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