Mondo Knows Facts
The Milky Way belongs to a cluster of over fifty galaxies
The Local Group spans ten million light-years and is led by Andromeda
The Local Group is a gravitationally bound galaxy cluster spanning roughly ten million light-years across. Containing over 50 member galaxies, its total mass is dominated by two massive spiral galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy and our Milky Way, surrounded by dozens of dwarf satellite galaxies like the Magellanic Clouds.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
The Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda GalaxyIn four billion years our home galaxy will merge with its nearest large neighbourA supermassive black hole sits at the centre of the Milky WaySagittarius A star contains four million times the mass of our SunThe Milky Way is pulled towards a vast gravitational featureA massive concentration of galaxy clusters draws home galaxy at high speedGalaxies across the universe are arranged in a vast cosmic webGravity arranges billions of galaxies along dark matter filaments and voidsThe observable universe contains septillions of starsAstronomers estimate there are more stars in space than sand grains on EarthThe Hubble Deep Field uncovered thousands of distant galaxiesFocusing on a tiny patch of dark sky revealed deep cosmic history
Tags: local group, galaxies, milky way
The Milky Way belongs to a cluster of over fifty galaxies: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The Local Group spans ten million light-years and is led by Andromeda. The figure is taken from ESA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a space fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.