Re: Great Attractor

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From: "Sidney Keith" <sidkeith@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Great Attractor
Date: Tue, 08 May 2001 22:06:57 
Message-ID: <F116eS8YkdavN3qljWw00000263@hotmail.com>

 

I have a question from the excellent Astronomy Day last week.  We learned that gravitational force is pulling our group of galaxies towards a "Great Attractor," a distant galactic supercluster.  My question is whether our speed towards this object is accelerating.  Most of the other trajectories I know about in space are orbital, with the shape of ellipses -- the earth and comets around the sun, the sun around the Milky Way galaxy center, the Milky Way Galaxy around the center of its cluster.  I have assumed that these motions proceed at a constant speed, with the additional gravitational energy going into changing the orbital object's direction. (Is this right?  People say, "sun is rotating around the galaxy at such-and-such a speed.)  But if our galactic cluster is moving on a straight line towards the Great Attractor, its speed should be constantly increasing.  Wouldn't it attain the speed of light in no time at all due to the mathematics of geometrical increase, the constant tug of gravity making it go faster and faster all the time?  Are we moving at the speed of light towards the Great Attractor?

I would also like to know more about the exciting new discoveries concerning the "sound waves" produced by the Big Bang, and their responsibility for the distribution of matter in the universe into great walls and empty bubbles.  Why would matter collect around the "noise" spots produced by the Big Bang?  What a fascinating day -- thanks to all concerned! 

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