The Great Attractor

[Titan]

Does anyone with a good science background understand this? I remember people saying that the universe appeared to be accelerating outwards, has it been attributed to the Great Attractor or something else?

[PipeBox]

The universe accelerating outwards is attributed to dark energy.  I don't consider myself knowledgeable to challenge that idea, as there is probably more corroborating evidence than just the acceleration of the universe's expansion (I'd assume they have a method to rule out gravitational pull from objects in our past light cone, for instance, but no promises).  The Great Attractor appears to just be a supercluster or a cluster of them, or a supercluster and some dark matter.  See, it is really hard to see even the Norma Supercluster, which lies near the center of the Great Attractor, and it doesn't help that we're part of the Centaurus Wall which the GA is thought to lie at the center of.   Here, have a link http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/greatatt.htm  All I can say is that it's a dang shame we can't get a better look at it!

The universe gets really amazing the deeper you dig.  The Great Attractor is just one of many tourist spots.  

[Titan]

I know what you're saying, I almost became an astronomy major before I realized that I hate calculus with a burning passion and that I'm horrible with memorizing lists of facts. Thanks for your help, I'll read up on the site you gave me.

Edit: LOL, the Seven Samurai...those goofy astrophysicists.

Ahhh...just imagine if we could bend the fabric of time and space and what not, just to be able to see other parts of the universe! *SIGH* That would be so amazing. I always have astronomy pictures as my background and it makes me wish I had stuck with astronomy.

[PipeBox]

Yeah, I know what you mean, I have a piece of NASA concept art as my background.  From their Astronomy Picture of the Day site.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Bah, I'll say it.  I enjoy nothing more than the night sky.  You can see more at once with one look at the heavens than you can ever hope to with an earthbound gaze.  More matter and energy and open space than man can hope to harness, and all you have to do to see it is look up.  Of course, all the wondrous images that we can get by using methods apart from using our naked eyes lose none of their majesty.  I'm personally partial to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, but then who isn't?

Oh, and for whiling away free time, I recommend //sky.google.com
It isn't perfect in its effort to seamlessly blend all our images of the sky, but they do fine work!  

[Titan]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Trippy...but I love NASA's APOD.