"Looking skyward fills us with wonder. Off-world, the Sun, planets, stars, and galaxies all await. Our Solar System encompasses our own cosmic backyard. Farther away, stars and star clusters abound within the Milky Way. Hundreds of billions of stars exist just within our home galaxy. Inside our Local Group, only Andromeda surpasses us in mass, size, and stars. More than 5 million light-years away, galaxies abound in groups and clusters."
"The closest galaxy cluster is found ~55 million light-years away: the Virgo Cluster. Within it, we find the largest nearby supermassive black hole: Messier 87*. Even more massive galaxy clusters exist farther away, like the Coma Cluster. The largest known single galaxy is IC 1101: at cluster Abell 2029 's center. Between the galaxy clusters are giant voids, containing only rare, isolated galaxies."
"Usually within galaxy clusters, supermassive black holes can become active. The largest quasar jet, Porphyrion, is 23 million light-years long. On still-larger scales, the structure of the cosmic web appears. These superclusters and filaments aren't gravitationally bound, they'll be torn apart by dark energy. The most distant object, MoM-z14, is 33.8 billion light-years away. Only the Big Bang's leftover glow, 46 billion light-years away, appears more distant."
Cosmic structure spans from the Solar System to the cosmic web, with nested scales of stars, galaxies, groups, clusters, superclusters, and voids. The Milky Way holds hundreds of billions of stars, and Andromeda in the Local Group surpasses it in mass, size, and stellar population. The Virgo Cluster lies about 55 million light-years away and hosts the nearby supermassive black hole Messier 87; larger clusters such as Coma and Abell 2029 include giant galaxies like IC 1101. Voids between clusters contain only rare isolated galaxies. Supermassive black holes can become active and produce quasar jets like Porphyrion. Superclusters and filaments form the cosmic web but are not gravitationally bound and will be stretched apart by dark energy. The most distant named object, MoM-z14, is about 33.8 billion light-years away, while the Big Bang's background glow corresponds to roughly 46 billion light-years.
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