A new map of the universe suggests that the Milky Way is part of a larger “basin of attraction” than previously thought. This basin, called the Shapley Concentration, could be up to 10 times larger than our known supercluster, Laniākea.
Basins of attraction (BOAs) are regions where gravity pulls everything inward toward a massive object. They can nest within each other, like the Earth orbiting the Sun. The Local Group, which includes the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies, is one example. Beyond that are larger structures, such as the Virgo Cluster and Laniākea, which contains about 100,000 galaxies.
Published on Sept. 27 in Nature Astronomy, the study analyzed the movements of over 56,000 galaxies to create a 3D probabilistic map of BOAs. Researchers now believe there is a 60% chance that the Milky Way is part of the Shapley Concentration. This challenges previous beliefs about our galaxy’s connections.

Study co-author Noam Libeskind noted the excitement of finding our supercluster is more extensive than thought. However, uncertainties remain due to measurement errors and dark matter’s influence.”It’s perhaps unsurprising that as we look deeper into the cosmos, we find our supercluster is more connected and extensive than we thought,” said study co-author Noam Libeskind, a cosmologist at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam. “It’s exciting to think we might be part of a much larger structure.”
The map reveals various cosmic structures, including the South Pole Wall and the Sloan Great Wall, which spans 1.4 billion light-years. While the findings help clarify our place in the universe, they also suggest we may still lack information.
Ehsan Kourkchi emphasized that our cosmic surveys might not be large enough to fully capture the universe’s extent. An interactive version of the new map illustrates these findings, showing different BOAs in color. The Milky Way is at the intersection of these cosmic arrows.
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