Conquering the Realm of the Galaxies

The constellation of Virgo is littered with glowing galaxies. Join Rod Mollise on a tour through some of its best sights

One spring afternoon, many years ago, I was idly thumbing through an astronomy book from the library when I came upon a spring star chart with a portion of the sky labelled ‘The Realm of the Galaxies’. That sounded so intriguing, I began reading in earnest. I learned this ‘realm’ is a great cluster of galaxies called the Virgo–Coma Cluster, island universes just like our Milky Way. It stretches across the spring sky from northernmost Coma Berenices to southernmost Virgo and is home to some 2,000 galaxies. While the Milky Way is a member of this Virgo–Coma Cluster, the heart of this great agglomeration of galaxies is a mind-bending 54 million lightyears distant. By the time I finished reading, I wanted to see the Realm for myself. My journey through…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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