Cosmic Scale
ESO 383-76
Supergiant elliptical galaxy · About 700 million light-years
How big is ESO 383-76?
ESO 383-76 is about 1.8 million light-years across.
See ESO 383-76 in 3D, at true scale
ESO 383-76 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy at the heart of the galaxy cluster Abell 3571, in the Shapley Supercluster — the densest gathering of galaxies in our part of the universe. Like IC 1101 it is a cD galaxy: a huge ball of old stars wrapped in a faint, sprawling halo, grown by swallowing the galaxies around it.
At a glance
| Diameter | 1.8 million light-years |
|---|---|
| Diameter compared with Earth | 1.3 × 10¹⁵ × Earth |
| Distance | About 700 million light-years |
| Type | Supergiant elliptical (cD) |
| Cluster | Abell 3571, Shapley Supercluster |
| Constellation | Centaurus |
Good to know
- Its faint outer halo fades so gradually that its size depends on how deep an image goes; published figures differ widely.
- The Shapley Supercluster around it is so massive that its gravity tugs on the Milky Way from 650 million light-years away.
- cD galaxies like it are found only at the centres of rich clusters, where a steady supply of smaller galaxies falls in to be eaten.
- Next smaller: Hercules A · 920,000 light-years
- Next larger: IC 1101 · 4 million light-years