Laniakea, Prof Brent Tully (IFA, University of Hawaii)

Thursday Nov 13, 2014, 3:15 PM → 4:45 PM Pacific/Honolulu

112 (Watanabe Hall)

A compendium of over 8000 galaxy distances has been accumulated. Distance measurements permit the separation of observed velocities into cosmic expansion and peculiar velocity components. Only the radial component of peculiar velocities can be measured and individual errors are large, but a Wiener Filter procedure permits the reconstruction of three-dimensional motions and the density field that is responsible for these motions. A coherent flow pervades the entire domain of +- 115, 000 km/s. Techniques are discussed for the separation of local and tidal components of the flow. Laniakea supercluster is identified as a region of contiguous infalling flows. Laniakea extends across 160 Mpc and contains the (mostly dark matter) mass of 100 quadrillion suns.

Paper http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7516/full/nature13674.html

Slides Laniakea_hawaii_physics.pdf

Video http://irfu.cea.fr/laniakea Laniakea-FINAL-1080p-WM.m4v.mp4