Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T09:16:16.270Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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).

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aaronson, M., Dawe, J. A., Dickens, R. J., Mould, J. R., and Murray, J. B. Mon. Not. Astron. Soc., 195, 1 (1981).Google Scholar
Aaronson, M., Mould, J., and Huchra, J. Astrophys. J., 237, 655 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aaronson, M., Mould, J., Huchra, J., Sullivan, W. T. III, Schommer, R. A., and Bothun, G. D. Astrophys. J., 239, 12 (1980).Google Scholar
Boughn, S. P., Cheng, E. S., and Wilkinson, D. T. Astrophys. J. (Letters), 243, L113 (1981).Google Scholar
de Vaucouleurs, G. Astrophys. J., 227, 729 (1979).Google Scholar
de Vaucouleurs, G., de Vaucouleurs, A., and Corwin, H. G. Second Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies, Austin, Univ. of Texas Press (1976).Google Scholar
de Vaucouleurs, G., and Peters, W. L. Nature, 220, 868 (1968).Google Scholar
Fisher, J. R., and Tully, R. B. Astrophys. J. Suppl. in press (1981).Google Scholar
Gorenstein, M. V., and Smoot, G. F. Astrophys. J., 244, 361 (1981).Google Scholar
Holmberg, E. Medd. Lunds. Obs., Ser. 2., No. 128 (1958).Google Scholar
Jones, B. J. T. Mon. Not. Astron. Soc., 174, 429 (1976).Google Scholar
Matzner, R. A. Astrophys. J., 241, 851 (1980).Google Scholar
Mould, J., Aaronson, M., and Huchra, J. Astrophys. J., 238, 458 (1980).Google Scholar
Peebles, P. J. E., Physical Cosmology, Princeton University Press, Princeton (1971).Google Scholar
Sandage, A. Astrophys. J., 202, 563 (1975).Google Scholar
Sandage, A., and Tammann, G. A. Astrophys. J., 196, 313 (1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandage, A., and Tammann, G. A. Astrophys. J., 210, 7 (1976).Google Scholar
Sandage, A., Tammann, G. A., and Hardy, E. Astrophys. J., 172, 253 (1972).Google Scholar
Sandage, A., and Visvanathan, N. Astrophys. J., 223, 707 (1978).Google Scholar
Schechter, P. L. Astron. J., 85, 801 (1980).Google Scholar
Sciama, D. W. Phys. Rev. Letters,, 18, 1065 (1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shostak, G. S. Astron. Astrophys., 68, 321 (1978).Google Scholar
Tammann, G. A., and Kraan, R. The Large Scale Structure of the Universe, eds. Longair, M. S., and Eimasto, J. (Dordrecht-Reidel Publ. Co), 71–87 (1978).Google Scholar
Tammann, G. A., Sandage, A., and Yahil, A. Physica Scripta, 21, 630 (1980).Google Scholar
Tonry, J. L., and Davis, M. Astrophys. J. (in press) (1981).Google Scholar
van den Bergh, S. submitted to Astrophys. J. (1981).Google Scholar
Visvanathan, N. J. Astrophys. Astron. 2, 67 (1981).Google Scholar
Visvanathan, N. in preparation (1981a).Google Scholar
Visvanathan, N., and Dickens, R. J. in preparation (1981).Google Scholar
Visvanathan, N., and Sandage, A. Astrophys. J., 216, 214 (1977).Google Scholar