Visualization of structures and cosmic flows in the local Universe

Abstract

A visualization of 3D structures and cosmic flows is presented using information from the Extragalactic Distance Database V8k redshift catalog and peculiar velocities from the Cosmicflows-1 survey. Structures within a volume bounded at 8000 km s⁻¹ on the cardinal Supergalactic axes are explored in terms of both displaying the positions of the 30,124 galaxies of the catalog and its reconstructed luminosity density field, corrected to account for growing incompleteness with increasing distance. Cosmography of the local Universe is discussed with the intent to identify the most prominent structures, including voids, galaxy clusters, filaments, and walls. The mapping also benefits from precise distance measures provided through the Cosmicflows-1 observational program. Three-dimensional visualizations of the coherent flows of galaxies in the nearby Universe are presented, using recent results based on reconstruction of cosmic flows with the Wiener filter approach. The three major components of the Milky Way's motion, namely expulsion from the Local Void, infall toward the Virgo Cluster, and the bulk flow of the historic Local Supercluster toward the Great Attractor are illustrated using different visualization techniques and analyzed in light of the cosmography derived from the V8k redshift and Cosmicflows-1 distance catalogs.