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Are we falling into the Virgo Cluster?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

N. Visvanathan
N. Visvanathan*
Affiliation:
Mt Stromlo Siding Spring Observatories, A.N.U.
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Extract

One of the important discoveries of astronomy is that the Universe expands: distant galaxies have large recession velocities in direct proportion to their distances. Attempts to determine a global value for the constant of proportionality between the velocity and the distance (Hubble constant) are met with difficulties by the presence of peculiar, random and streaming motions in the local region. These peculiar motions are either of primordial origin or the effect of density perturbations. These affect the mean velocity of the nearby groups in the level of 50-100 km/sec (Tammann, Sandage and Yahil 1980). However, the expected peculiar gravitationally induced motion of the Local Group towards the Virgo cluster, could be large due to the high density contrast in that direction (Sciama 1967; de Vaucouleurs and Peters 1968; Sandage, Tammann and Hardy 1972; Jones 1976). This infall motion could be as high as 500 km/sec if the anisotropy of the microwave background is interpreted to have a component of our peculiar motion towards the Virgo cluster (Peebles 1971, Boughn, Cheng and Wilkinson 1981; Gorenstein and Smoot 1981).

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Contributions
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , 1981 , pp. 172 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1981

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