In this segment of our “How far away is it” video book, we cover our local supercluster, the Virgo Supercluster.
We begin with a description of the size, content and structure of the supercluster, including the formation of galaxy clusters and galaxy clouds.
We then take a look at some of the galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster including: NGC 4314 with its ring in the core, NGC 5866, I Zwicky 18, the beautiful NGC 2841, NGC 3079 with is central gaseous bubble, M60, M100, M77 with its central supermassive black hole, NGC 3949, NGC 3310, NGC 4013, the unusual NGC 4522, NGC 4710 with its "X"-shaped bulge, NGC 1052, Hanny’s Voorwerp, NGC 3256 and NGC 4414.
Then we continue with galaxy gazing with: NGC 1427A, NGC 3982, NGC 1300, NGC 5584, the dusty NGC 1316, NGC 4639, NGC 4319, NGC 3021 with is large number of Cepheid variables, NGC 3370, NGC 1309, and 7049.
At this point, we have enough distant galaxies to formulate Hubble’s Law and calculate Hubble’s Red Shift constant. From a distance ladder point of view, once we have the Hubble constant, and we can measure red shift, we can calculate distance. So we add Red Shift to our ladder.
We end with a review of the distance ladder now that Red Shift has been added.