jamey2k9 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 do galaxies orbit around a certain point or just float around. and if so what would have the gravitational pull to move a galaxy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 As I recall, most of them have supermassive blackholes in the center, and yes, they orbit that central point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamey2k9 Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 thx but I ment does the galaxy itself move at all (and what's the virgo supercluster) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaynos Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 does the galaxy move relative to what? All other galaxies are moving relative to us, those in our cluster (and probably super cluster) are gravitationally bound in some way, they don't as far as I know orbit anything though. Other galaxies are moving away from us (relative to us) due to the expansion of the universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamey2k9 Posted January 30, 2009 Author Share Posted January 30, 2009 thankyou that was answer I wanted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 do galaxies orbit around a certain point or just float around. and if so what would have the gravitational pull to move a galaxy ... those in our cluster (and probably super cluster) are gravitationally bound in some way,.. thankyou that was answer I wanted To add to what Klaynos said, you know there are binary stars, where two stars orbit each other---actually they each orbit around a point between them called the center of mass. Binary and ternary (threesome) stars are common. You can reason by analogy and guess that something similar goes on with galaxies. You can have a pair of galaxies that orbit each other (or each orbits the point which is their center of mass). In our local group of galaxies there are some smaller dwarf galaxies that appear to be orbiting around Milkyway. Because relative positions change slowly at that scale it is difficult to plot or predict the orbits that galaxies travel in their bound clusters. Describing N-body systems is in any case more complicated than describing 2-body, or than describing a central body system where there is one dominant mass and several smaller satellite bodies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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